FARMINGDALE — Investigators say they may never know what sparked a Tuesday fire that destroyed a Rose Lane home.

Sgt. Ken Grimes said Wednesday that investigators worked late into the night but were unable to determine with a visual investigation what caused the fire. The investigation is ongoing, but Grimes said the preliminary finding is that the fire is of undetermined cause.

“I would say in all probability it will be undetermined,” Grimes said.

The unfinished home off the Hallowell-Litchfield Road, owned by Armand Fournier, was destroyed in the fire, which started around 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The only person living at the complex, a woman in the apartment, got out safely.

Fournier said at the scene that the home was 90 percent finished and he had been working on it for about three years. He and his girlfriend, Stephanie Hill, were planning to move there from their current home about five minutes away on Springvale Road in West Gardiner.

The 67-year-old Fournier, who estimated he had invested more than $250,000 into the home, did not have insurance.

West Gardiner Assistant Fire Chief Thomas McLaughlin said he was the first on the scene of the fire, shortly after 4 p.m. West Gardiner trucks soon followed him; and later, crews from Farmingdale, Gardiner, Chelsea, Pittston, Litchfield, Hallowell and Randolph showed up to help. By the time crews could arrive and set up, however, the fire had spread.

Deputy Chief Mike Laplante, of the Farmingdale Fire Department, said high wind drove the blaze, which had started in the house, into other parts of the building.


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