NORRIDGEWOCK — Fire destroyed a one-and-a-half-story garage on Airport Road in Norridgewock Monday morning, leaving a family of four homeless for Christmas and taking with it two generations of tools.
No one was reported injured in the fire that was first called in at 11:10 a.m. Crews from Norridgewock and Skowhegan battled the smoky blaze for more than an hour, hauling items from the burning garage.
A working pickup truck and other items were consumed in the fire. A nearby home was not damaged.
Damion Parlin, 27, said he and his wife and two children were in Rhode Island on Monday when they heard the news of the fire. He said they lived in an apartment above the garage and lost all of their belongings to smoke and water damage.
He said this was to be his 3-month-old daughter’s first Christmas.
“We’ve lived there for two years,” Parlin said by phone Monday afternoon. “My brother went upstairs and said everything’s drenched; there’s a lot of smoke damage. The windows are blown out. He said that he can see through our bathroom floor into the garage.”
Parlin said his wife, Jessica Parlin, 28, and their two daughters lost everything they owned.
“My 3-month-old daughter’s first Christmas — that would be this year,” he said. “Everything literally went up in smoke.”
Home owner Dennis Chapman, 65, said it might have been better if the modest home had been lost in the fire, rather than the garage. He did not mention the fact that his grandson, Parlin, and his family, lived upstairs.
“I was cutting a piece of metal on the vise and it evidently caught something — that’s what happened,” Chapman said from the fire scene. “I got out with only a couple of burns, but I got out. I’d rather it been the house. I’ve got 50 years of tools in there. It’s going to take me a while to even figure out what I had in there.
“My dad was a mechanic for 50 years, and he gave me all his tools when he retired. He died in ’92. So I’ve got all those tools and the tools I kept buying.”
Norridgewock Fire Chief Dave Jones was not available for comment from the scene Monday.
The garage appeared to have been destroyed, with heavy smoke pouring from the doors and eaves and exterior vinyl siding burnt and melted off the building.
The house where Chapman lives is only about 15 feet from the garage. Firefighters were able to save the house.
A crew from Emergency Medical Services at Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan also was sent to the scene.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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