WATERVILLE — A fire early Saturday morning that damaged a house on Mae Terrace and displaced a family of five has been deemed accidental and electrical in nature, according to a fire official.
Waterville fire Captain Rodney Alderman said Mary-Ann MacMaster, an investigator with the state Fire Marshal’s Office, inspected the house at 20 Mae Terrace on Monday morning and determined that the fire started in a second floor bedroom wall.
The house is owned by Mary Moody, and her 16-year-old daughter was in the bedroom when the fire started, according to Alderman, who responded to the scene Saturday. Moody called 911, and firefighters were dispatched to the scene at 4:40 a.m., he said.
“The daughter was sleeping in the bedroom and heard a pop. The air conditioner shut off, and she heard a crackling in the wall,” Alderman said. “That’s when she discovered the fire. So she woke everybody else up, and they got out.”
He said Moody has three daughters, but one was not in the house at the time, though a nephew was there.
The two-story, wood-frame, cape-style house was built in 1961 and is insured, according to Alderman. There are two bedrooms on the second floor, he said.
“The second floor was extensively damaged, and there was water damage, smoke damage on the main floor and water damage in the basement,” he said.
He said the Red Cross was not called in to help the family, as they did not request assistance and are staying with relatives. Moody’s insurance company is helping the family, he said.
About 25 firefighters from Waterville, Winslow, Fairfield, Oakland and Skowhegan responded to the scene and left at 8:23 a.m., according to Alderman.
“Nobody was injured,” he said. “I do want to stress that, because of similar street names, some of our firefighters responded to May Street, which is on the other end of town. Luckily, we responded to the right address. One good thing is, everybody was out of the house.”
Mae Terrace is a dead-end street off Western Avenue.
Alderman said firefighters did not know everyone was out of the house when they arrived because Moody had left her cellphone on the kitchen counter after calling 911 and before leaving the house.
He said, when he arrived at the scene, the fire hadn’t broken out yet, but there was smoke coming from the house. A crew was on the roof, ready to vent it, but the fire vented itself.
“At that point, it became extremely hot upstairs,” he said.
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