Firefighters from several surrounding communities were able to quickly douse a fire inside a Greene duplex Tuesday night.
Fire Chief Bruce Sanford said nobody was hurt in the blaze, but roughly a half dozen people, including at least two children, were displaced from their homes. Sanford said damage was limited to one of the two apartments, but both apartments are uninhabitable.
“Everybody is displaced because of how the building is set up,” he said. “All the power comes through the unit that burnt.”
The residents have renters insurance, Sanford said. The building, which is owned by Tony Morgan, also is insured. Sanford estimated the fire caused about $150,000 in damage.
The fire was likely sparked by a wood stove in the basement, Sanford said, though an investigator from the Office of the Maine State Fire Marshal was expected to arrive Wednesday afternoon to confirm Sanford’s suspicion.
The duplex is located at 93 Patten Road, just a few hundred feet from the fire department. The fire was reported around 8 p.m., just a few hours after many of the same firefighters responded to U.S. Route 202 for a crash that caused serious injuries. Though police reconstruction kept the road closed for several hours, the firefighters left the crash scene about an hour before the fire was reported, Sanford said.
“Some of our guys hadn’t even left the station,” he said.
The first firefighters at the scene called for mutual aid from surrounding communities, including Leeds, Monmouth, Turner and Wales.
“We had fire coming out the overhead door in the basement,” Sanford said.
Assistant Chief Ken Palleschi of the Monmouth Fire Department, which has an automatic mutual aid agreement with Greene, said his department sent three trucks and 21 firefighters to help the Greene crews.
“They were working an active structure fire” when Monmouth arrived, Palleschi said.
Sanford said the fire was under control in less than 30 minutes and extinguished shortly after that.
“It was a quick stop,” he said.
Craig Crosby — 621-5642
Twitter: @CraigCrosby4
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