Fire damaged a mobile home Tuesday morning on Beedle Road in Richmond. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
RICHMOND — A Beedle Road couple lost their home, and cat, to a fire early Tuesday morning.
Heavy flames engulfed the front of the mobile home of Melissa Higgins and Don Plante at 144 Beedle Road just after midnight. Higgins discovered the fire and woke up Plante and both escaped the burning structure.
Neither they, nor firefighters were injured in the fire. Their cat did not survive.
“Melissa noticed the fire and woke him up and they made their way out a back door,” said Richmond Deputy Fire Chief Matt Roberge.
Firefighters had the flames under control in about 20 minutes, according to Richmond Fire Chief John Bellino, but by then about half the home had burned. The remaining half was left with smoke damage, and the mobile home is likely not salvageable as a residence.
Roberge said an investigator from the Office of the State Fire Marshal responded to the fire scene, but the cause of the fire was undetermined.
The fire appeared to have started in a porch or mudroom area at the front of the home and then traveled into the main part of the structure. There was also some heat damage to cars on the property.
Neighbors offered the couple a place to spend the rest of the night and the Red Cross was contacted to offer them assistance, according to Roberge. He said the home was insured.
Bellino said firefighters used between 2,000 and 3,000 gallons of water to extinguish the blaze.
Firefighters from Gardiner, Litchfield, Dresden, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham and Woolwich responded to a call for mutual aid to help Richmond with the fire.
The home, according to town assessing records, was built in 1995.
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