WATERVILLE — The cause of a fire Thursday night on Louise Avenue that claimed the lives of two dogs remained undetermined Friday, according to the Office of the Maine State Fire Marshal.

The fire at 11 Louise Ave. originated in the garage. Although there is heavy damage, the fire marshal’s office plans to continue investigating the blaze, said Sgt. Ken Grimes.

Grimes would not say whether the fire is considered suspicious.

“We don’t have enough information and enough evidence to classify it, so ‘undetermined’ is what the classification is going to be while we work on it,” he said.

The fire was first reported around 7 p.m. Thursday.

The two-story house belongs to Scott and Kim Cornforth, who lived there with their son and Scott Cornforth’s parents. The family was not home at the time the fire started, but two of their four dogs were rescued from the house.

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A cat that was in the garage was missing Thursday night, and Waterville Fire Chief David LaFountain said Friday he did not have any information on whether it had been found.

Asked how bad the damage to the house was, LaFountain said, “I’ve seen buildings with less damage that are totaled. It all depends on the insurance company.”

Firefighters from Oakland, Waterville and Winslow responded and were at the scene until about midnight, he said.

Rachel Ohm — 612-2368

rohm@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @rachel_ohm


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