For the third day in a row, firefighters from Mount Vernon and surrounding communities on Friday were called on to fight a structure fire.

While fires Wednesday and Thursday destroyed a home and a barn, respectively, Mount Vernon Fire Chief Dana Dunn said quick work by firefighters limited Friday’s damage to a decorative shield placed around a mobile home.

“It did no damage except for the skirting around the trailer,” Dunn said.

The owner of the home at 101 Dunns Corner Road called for help around 10:10 a.m. Friday after discovering smoke coming from under her home. Dunn said firefighters arrived to find a fire fueled by dry leaves that had burned about three-quarters of the way around the home. The leaves went up against the home, allowing flames to begin creeping up one side of the home.

Firefighters from the mutual-aid communities of Belgrade, Fayette, Readfield, Rome, Vienna and Wayne, working with Mount Vernon crews, quickly knocked down the fire on the home’s skirting and on the ground, Dunn said. Crews were on scene for less than hour.

“It was a good, quick save on that one,” Dunn said. “They got lucky.”

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The fire was the third in as many days in Mount Vernon. Many of the same firefighters had responded Wednesday to a blaze on North Road that left six people homeless and to a Thursday fire at Romp & Stomp Acres Boer Goat Farm off Long Acres Road that killed eight baby goats and destroyed the barn.

Dunn said Friday’s fire, like Wednesday’s North Road fire, probably started as a result of discarded smoking material. The state remains under a red-flag warning for high potential for forest fires because of extremely dry conditions.

But Vicki Reid, whose father, Clayton Reid, owns the home, is less convinced about the fire’s source. She said there were a number of small fires around the home and in places where she doesn’t smoke.

“I’ve smoked here for five years and never had a fire,” she said.

Craig Crosby — 621-5642

ccrosby@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @CraigCrosby4


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