BENTON — Firefighters from area towns helped battle a fire that started early Tuesday afternoon near a wood stove in a mobile home, officials said.

Emergency personnel were sent to 14 Crummett St. about 1 p.m. after a report of a fire in an enclosed entryway attached to the residence. Firefighters from Fairfield and Winslow were able to extinguish the blaze before it reached the interior of the home, but they had to tear out the metal chimney and remove parts of the walls and roof to get at remaining hot spots.

Firefighters use tools to open up walls and roof to get to fire that did serious damage to a home on Crummett Street in Benton on Tuesday. Firefighters tore off sections of metal chimney section on ground. Staff photo by David Leaming

Fairfield Fire Capt. Jim Lane said it took crews 15 minutes to knock the fire down, but they remained at the scene for about two hours making sure it was fully extinguished.

At the scene, Lane suggested the building could have sustained even more extensive damage if firefighters hadn’t arrived in time.

“Another five or seven minutes and we would have been in the trailer,” Lane said.

The fire started in a wood stove in the entryway and ignited rafters in the ceiling, Lane said. Fire personnel had to tear out insulation, pull up metal sheeting on the roof and remove the entire stack pipe to check on spots that might still be on fire.

At the scene, homeowner Gary Bulger leaned against a pickup truck, watching firefighters clambering on the roof of his home.

He was in the neighborhood at the bottom of the dead-end street when a neighbor reported that smoke was coming from his house, Bulger said. He called the Fire Department and tried to extinguish the fire himself before fire crews started arriving.

About 10 firefighters from Fairfield and Winslow responded to the fire.

Peter McGuire — 861-9239

pmcguire@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @PeteL_McGuire

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