WISCASSET

A hand-carved toy truck sat atop a pile of damp wood, charred and smoke-stained from the fire that recently devastated the Industries Program’s woodshop at Two Bridges Regional Jail.

“Nothing could be salvaged,” said Lt. Naomi Bonang, supervisor of the jail’s Industries Program, as she stood by the three-bay garage that was used as a workshop. Black stains curled from the top of the bay doors where smoke had escaped into the early morning air.

“We have miter saws, planers, bandsaws, a drill press, table saw, routers, router table, every imaginable hand tool,” said Bonang, “and between the heat and the water all these high-end machines, they’re just gone.

“We have a computer melted to the desk, a printer melted to the desk — it was shocking,” she said.

The fire was called in June 5 at 5:55 a.m. An investigator from the state Fire Marshal’s office and a Wiscasset Fire Department investigator determined the source of the fire was a rag soaked in linseed oil that had spontaneously combusted.

“We have a tin outside for oily rags and that’s where they go at the end of every day,” said Bonang. “They were working and it was cleanup time, and one of the rags was missed — they had set it down some place where it wasn’t visible and it was forgotten.”

The Industries Program is a self-sustaining business that operates inside the jail, and includes commissary services, a garden that supplies fresh produce to local food pantries and the woodshop, which has donated hundreds of handmade toys to the Lincoln and Sagadahoc County Toys for Tots campaigns.

Inmates that work in the Industries Program typically work eight-hour days and are paid $1.50 per hour, of which 25 percent goes to paying fines and restitution and 25 percent goes to pay room and board at the facility.

“We have such an incredible safety record. We have checks and rechecks, and policies we go by,” said Bonang, who was hired eight years ago to create the program. “The training is unbelievable.”

The fire started in the finish room, which was the most heavily damaged, Bonang said, and smoldered there overnight before igniting and spreading to the office and the rest of the structure.

The tools and wood were purchased over time with proceeds from the business, and local businesses had also donated supplies including costly specialty wood like mahogany, oak and black walnut.

“We had $600 worth of wood that was delivered the week of the fire,” said Bonang. “We grabbed as much as we could, but we haven’t really experimented with it yet to see if it’s workable or if it’s still going to be smelly.”

Two Bridges Regional Jail also recently opened a kiosk on the Wiscasset waterfront pier to sell Industries Program products, such as birdhouses, handpainted puzzles, woodburned artwork and Adirondack chairs. Bonang estimated approximately $1,000 worth of stock for the kiosk was lost.

With the woodshop cordoned off, Industries workers have moved to a maintenance garage where they are washing and hand-sanding every piece of wood that wasn’t fire damaged to remove smoke stains from the surface.

“One of the things that makes our program different from many others is that we work as a team,” said Bonang. “They’re all on board with doing everything they can to get us back up and running. Normally we have big machines that could do this work, but now they’re all volunteering to do it by hand.

“This is a very progressive jail. My recidivism rate for inmates that have gone through this program is next to none,” she added. “They get a sense of accomplishment over a good day’s work and are assured that they have something they can give back to the community.”

An inspector will determine if the woodshop structure is salvageable or if it will have to be torn down, said Bonang, and they are currently waiting to hear how much of the damage will be covered by insurance.

“We accumulated those tools over eight years,” said Bonang. “We will be relying heavily on insurance money to replace our tools, and I hope that they give us enough to cover everything.”

Still, Bonang said she is hopeful that the program will be back up and running by July.

“Colonel Mark Westrum has been working nonstop,” said Bonang, referring to the correctional administrator of the jail. “He’s been working with the fire marshals, with the inspectors, with the insurance company, with the jail authority — doing everything he can do to get us back up and running.

“If there is one positive that I can take away from this, it’s that this is a good reminder for all of us to be very careful when we dispose of these things because it can go up like that,” she added, with a rapid snap of her fingers.

The Industries Program kiosk is open from 10:30 a.m. to around 3:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, weather permitting, on the Main Street Pier in downtown Wiscasset.

rgargiulo@timesrecord.com