NORRIDGEWOCK — Maurice Bowring had one word to say Monday standing next to the charred rubble that once was his home.
“Again?” Bowring said of the fire Thursday night that left him, his wife, Tornia, and 4-year-old granddaughter, Serenity, with nothing but what they could grab as they left the burning home.
FAMILY DONATIONS
Denise Webber and Bill Allen of Norridgewock are trying to raise money and collect important items for the Bowring family, who lost their home in a fire last week.
Donations of food, propane, blankets, pillows, dog food, an inside water pump for a shallow dug well, clothing and cash can be sent in the Allens’ name to 754 Ward Hill Road, Norridgewock, or by calling 509-5313.
“I’ve had a few fires down here,” Bowring said of the dead-end driveway off rural Walker Road in Norridgewock. “I’ve lost two, three houses down here. My wife says it’s haunted.”
Bowring, 58, said in previous years he lost a trailer, a house and a camper all in general proximity to the most recent fire. He said he plans to rebuild.
“I had intentions of building a new house. I just didn’t know I had to do it now,” he said.
Family friends Denise Webber and Bill Allen of Norridgewock are trying to raise money and collect important items for the family, they said Monday.
The Bowring family is living in a camper nearby in the meantime. He said the building and the contents were not insured.
Bowring said the family was in the living room at about 7 p.m. Thursday with a curtain hanging to keep the wood heat in the living space when the fire started.
“The lights flickered. There was wicked black smoke everywhere all at once,” he said. “I picked the curtain up, and the flames just about hit me in the face. As soon as it got smoky and I picked that curtain up and it was going, we just grabbed the dog, my suit, a pair of ski pants, what I could grab and I come out in my PJ’s and one slipper.”
A son, Caleb Bowring, was not at home when the fire broke out, but said Monday he lost all of his clothing and belongings. Bowring’s daughter, Kyla, who had a fire at her home in Madison in 2013, also lost much of her belongings. The family’s dog made it out safe, he said.
Bowring said the Office of State Fire Marshal determined that the fire started in a clothes dryer in an adjoining room and quickly spread to the rest of the home.
Bowring, a disabled woods worker who dabbled in scrap metal sales during mud season, said no one was injured in the fire. He said fire departments from Norridgewock, Madison and Skowhegan had to struggle to get water down the narrow driveway, using hoses from pumper trucks up on the main road to fill a truck stationed near the house.
Bowring said the property has been in his family for generations. He was born in a house nearby.
“It was my grandfather’s, and I was born just up the road from here, and I’m going to die here,” he said.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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