RICHMOND — The first thing Marina Ocean Terrell could smell Wednesday afternoon was something burning, and then she heard the drip of melting plastic from the light fixture in the bathroom.
Then the smoke detector sounded, and she grabbed her purse, son Connor and two of three family pets and headed outside.
“One of the neighbors called 911,” she said. “My phone isn’t working now.”
That call came about 4:30 p.m., when the Richmond Fire Department already was fighting a brush fire in Bowdoinham. The department turned back and joined firefighters from Gardiner and Dresden to knock down the fire reported at Terrell’s home, at 19 Hatch St.
Richmond Fire Chief Matt Roberge said that when he arrived, smoke was coming through the hole in the roof and through the eaves of the bluff-colored mobile home in the Meadow Lane Community Park. The fire displaced the family of three.
Roberge said he didn’t have an estimate on the damage, and the state fire marshal’s office is expected to investigate the fire scene Thursday.
Kaaleb Terrell said he and his family moved to Maine less than a month ago from Washington state to be closer to his father’s family and to take a job at Bath Iron Works. BIW security contacted him to inform him about the fire, and he returned home.
“We moved here in a car. We spent every penny we had furnishing the place,” he said.
Marina Terrell said the family’s dog and one cat got out of the house, but she had not seen the other cat, which she said probably was hiding.
They expected to be let into the rented home to gather up some belongings, then to spend the night at the home of Kaaleb Terrell’s father.
Jessica Lowell — 621-5632
Twitter: @JLowellKJ
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