INDUSTRY — Edward Boyd barely escaped a fast-spreading fire that destroyed his family’s home and killed their two dogs Sunday night.

Boyd, 45, awoke to barking dogs and a blaring fire alarm around 8 p.m. He opened his bedroom door to find the living room aglow in orange flames and called out for the dogs, a Labrador named Diesel and a pitbull named Molly.

Additional Photos

NARROW ESCAPE: Edward Boyd, 45, points to the window he jumped out of to escape a fire that destroyed his family's home Sunday night on Rand Road in Industry. Staff photo by David Robinson

Diesel ran into the bedroom and Boyd slammed the door shut, trying to keep out the flames that were spreading through the rest of the one-story house on Rand Road.

Boyd tried to punch through the bedroom window, eventually grabbing a rifle to smash the glass. Before climbing out the window, though, he had lost track of Diesel in the thick black smoke filling the room.

He hung from the window frame before dropping about five feet to the ground below, cutting his fingers and leg on shards of the broken glass. Once outside, he ran alongside the house and broke the living room window with his fist, hoping to give the dogs a way out before he left to get help.

Boyd Monday recalled his harrowing experience Monday morning as he, his wife, Carolyn, and son Sean, 15, and daughter Leigha 16, stood outside their ravaged home.

After escaping the home, he went to his wife’s parents’ house next door to call 911. Several fire departments from the area responded.

But the home, which was insured, was gutted before the fire was extinguished, Boyd said.

“We lost everything but the clothes on our backs, but the important thing is he made it out safe,” Carolyn Boyd said. She and the kids were at the movies in Farmington celebrating Sean’s birthday when the fire broke out. She said she got a call from a family member about the fire and they rushed home to find the home burning.

The family struggled when describing their dogs, killed at ages 1 and 2. But they brightened up for a moment when their cat, Fluffy, appeared from behind a shed. The 15-year-old cat had been outside during the fire.

Boyd’s family took him to the hospital in Farmington about 1 a.m., and he got six stitches in his leg and was treated for a severed finger.

The family is staying at Carolyn Boyd’s parents’ home and they plan to rebuild their house, where they’ve lived for nearly two decades, Edward Boyd said. American Red Cross representatives also arrived during the morning to help the family.

“The toughest thing is that it took 18 years to get what I got and to just lose it all in minutes,” he said.

The father and children spent the morning walking around the charred remains of their home, pointing out burned clothing, rifles and other items strewn across the lawn. They were waiting for an official from the State Fire Marshal’s Office to arrive before going inside, he said.

Edward Boyd believes the fire may have started in a wood-burning stove in the living room. He put some wood in the stove before going to bed Sunday night, planning to wake up early to work on a logging job out of town, he said.

An investigator was not at the scene Sunday night and no information was available Monday afternoon, an official with the fire marshal’s office said. Industry fire Chief Rick Tibbetts did not immediately return a message Monday.

David Robinson — 861-9287

drobinson@centralmaine.com

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