Brunswick home gutted in Monday afternoon blaze

Firefighters look on as crews work on the scene of a house fire Monday in Brunswick. Kathleen O’Brien / The Times Record

Firefighters responded to a fire at a single-family home on River Road in Brunswick around noon on Monday.

Crews arrived at 613 River Road in Brunswick at around noon after a passerby reported the fire around 11:45 a.m., according to Brunswick Fire Inspector Josh Shean. Crews from Brunswick, Bath, West Bath, Pownal, Freeport, Topsham, Durham and Lisbon responded.

River Road runs adjacent to the Androscoggin River and intersects with I-295. Map created using Flourish by Nina Mahaleris for The Times Record.

“When our first crews arrived on scene, they had heavy fire showing from the building and smoke in the area, so as we were coming in, we knew we had a structure fire,” said Shean.

Firefighters had the fire mostly contained by 2 p.m. Monday, but crews were still looking for hot spots around 3 p.m.

“Initially when we got on scene we had fire visible from one side of the building on two floors,” said Brunswick Fire Chief Ken Brillant. “Within about two minutes the entire first floor was (on fire) and the second floor was well on its way. This house is destroyed and gutted on all floors.”

Brillant said the residents weren’t home when the fire started and no one was injured, but one homeowner was transported to the hospital after “feeling a little distressed,” Brillant said.

Water spurts from the home as firefighters make sure the blaze is completely extinguished. Kathleen O’Brien / The Times Record

Brillant said he didn’t know how many people lived in the home or how the fire started.

Brillant said the homeowners will be interviewed to try to pinpoint potential causes of the fire. The Brunswick police and fire departments will work together on an investigation.

“At this point we have no reason to call the fire marshal’s office,” said Brillant.

Brillant said the fire was difficult to fight because the property isn’t near a fire hydrant, so water had to be shuttled in from the closest hydrant with tanker trucks from neighboring communities who responded to help.

The fire also took hours to fully extinguish because “we have a lot of hidden fire in the walls we’re digging out,” said Brillant.

“It’s a big house and the layout is always a little different,” said Brillant. “This one is cut up with different renovations over the years so trying to find the stairwells, how everything attaches and hidden spaces — that’s the difficulty in these types of fires.”