Investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s Office are scheduled to return Monday to the Oxford Meadow Apartments, an elderly housing complex in Oxford where a woman was killed in a smoky fire early Saturday.

Theresa Heino, 85, died in the fire, which started about 2 a.m. at the complex at 1633 Main St., according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

A massive effort to rescue more than 40 tenants, many of them with disabilities, followed as rescuers rushed to carry them to safety amid the thick, black smoke that had spread quickly through the building.

Resident Virginia Brown, 65, was listed in stable condition Sunday night at Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, where she was being treated for smoke inhalation. A hospital spokesman, who spoke with Brown on Sunday night, said she wanted to let everyone know that “she is doing well.”

Sgt. Joel Davis of the State Fire Marshal’s Office said Sunday a state electrical inspector is being called in Monday because there are electrical components in the place where the fire started, a common area on the first floor of the two-story, U-shaped building.

Davis said he expected the cause of the fire to be determined Monday by the inspector. He said there is no indication that it was intentionally set.

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Davis was unable to characterize the extent of the damage to the complex and referred questions about that to the local fire department.

Oxford Fire Chief Wayne Jones could not be reached for comment Sunday, but he told WCSH-TV on Saturday that the smoke from the fire was so heavy that residents were unable to find their way out of the structure.

“You couldn’t see your hands in front of your face,” Jones told the Maine Sunday Telegram.

Residents were relocated to the Inn Town Motel in Norway, where the American Red Cross of Maine set up a temporary resource center to provide help with clothing, food and prescription medications.

Justin Burkhardt, a Red Cross spokesman, said the fire spoiled or damaged any medicines that had to be left behind during the evacuation. He said the Red Cross has tried to resupply residents with their prescriptions.

Burkhardt encouraged residents and their families to contact the Red Cross at 877-372-7363 if they need help with clothing, food or medicine. Red Cross volunteers and staff also plan to be at the motel from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to meet with anyone affected by the fire, Burkhardt said.

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“The Red Cross is always there to help with providing resources to those in need, but we also have to rely on the generosity and donations from the community,” he said.

Burkhardt said he was told Sunday by Nancy Cushman, president of Speedway Inc. Madison Avenue Associates, which operates the housing complex, that “the management company is paying for temporary housing of the residents.”

He said Cushman also told him that the management company would submit the cost of housing residents to its insurance carrier.

Cushman could not be reached for comment Sunday, but the company issued a statement Saturday in which it said: “We are praying for the residents that were hospitalized.”

The fire department and the management company will decide when residents can move back into their apartments.

The management company, which operates more than a dozen complexes for elderly and disabled people around the state, is owned by Robert P. Bahre, former owner of the Oxford Plains Speedway and the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He was also a major investor in the Oxford Casino, which was sold to Churchill Downs for $160 million in 2013.

The casino and speedway are a short drive from the apartment complex on Route 26.

Anyone wishing to donate toward helping offset the expenses caused by the Oxford fire may go to maineredcross.org.

 

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