TROY — Firefighters from nine departments worked to contain a fire at a two-story house on Bangor Road Sunday night.

As resident Gary Glidden was cooking dinner for his wife on the first floor, flames spread from a wall outlet to several other areas of the home, according to Troy Fire Chief Gregory Packard Jr. Glidden attempted to extinguish the blaze with one of several fire extinguishers in the house, but after it rekindled, Packard said Glidden “concentrated more on getting his wife out.”

Glidden’s wife, Sylvia, is wheelchair-bound. No one was injured, although Packard noted that “everybody was a little tired and strung out” on Monday morning.

Packard estimated that “a good two-thirds” of the house was damaged, including parts of the living room and an addition made of metal siding and laminate.

“They lost quite a bit of their stuff,” Packard said.

Packard was unable to immediately provide an estimated cost of the damages, but said that the property was insured.

The chief noted that an accumulation of objects in the elderly couple’s home at 384 Bangor Road was hazardous and could have created a far more serious or even deadly scenario on Sunday.

“A problem we’re seeing a lot more of these days is hoarding, which makes it hard to get in and put the fire out,” said Packard. “It’s not safe for the homeowners or the fire personnel going in. One of the scarier parts when this call came in was that we knew she was a heavier-set woman who was wheelchair-bound, and we were worried about not being able to get her out in time.”

He said the house was filled with objects.

“The best way to describe it is a maze — a 2-foot pathway through the entire house,” said Packard. “It just made it more difficult for us to do what we gotta do when we get there.”

Packard talked to Gary Glidden about the problem this created afterwards.

“I mentioned that to him and how it hampered us from fighting,” said Packard. The chief said Glidden said he grew up “‘we didn’t have nothing and now we hate to throw stuff away when we have stuff.'”

“I’m not picking on those people because we see it all the time in many towns,” Packard said. “When it comes to safety, it’s better to throw it in the dumpster than (keep it) in the house.”

The fire was called in at 10:14 p.m. on Sunday and cleared on Monday at 2:27 a.m. Firefighters from departments in Troy, Thorndike, Unity, Dixmont, Monroe, Freedom, Albion, Plymouth and Jackson responded to the scene, while five other towns were on standby.

Packard said that Monroe’s fire department provided a portable cascade system that allowed them to have an air refilling system on the scene, which helped responders fight the fire more quickly and efficiently.

Meg Robbins — 861-9239

mrobbins@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @megrobbins

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