A fire destroyed a garage and damaged a home at 662 High St. in West Gardiner Thursday morning. No one was hurt. Courtesy of the West Gardiner Fire Department
WEST GARDINER — A firefighter carried a woman down a flight of stairs, getting her outside before flames spread from an attached garage into the home Thursday morning.
The woman was not injured in the fire, nor was a man who also lived at the home. The fire destroyed the garage and partially burned their home, spreading from the attached garage into the kitchen, dining room and a basement utility room at 662 High St.
The firefighter, Trevor Rybka, who lives only a couple of houses away from the fire, arrived on the scene within a minute or two of the initial call for help and entered the home to help the two occupants out. The woman was not able to walk down the stairs to get out on her own, so Rybka carried her down the stairs, out of the home and to the end of the driveway to a vehicle, according to Fire Chief Mike Gross.
At that point, Gross said, the garage was fully involved in flames that were threatening the residence but had not yet spread there. When additional firefighters arrived, he said, the garage was fully involved and the flames were spreading to the home.
Gross said the fire appears to have started from a generator in the garage. He described the house as a partial loss in the fire, and the garage a total loss. He said the residents had family they could stay with in the area. He believed the home to be insured.
Gross did not have the names of the residents Thursday.
Firefighters responded to assist West Gardiner at the scene from Gardiner, Farmingdale, Pittston, Randolph and Litchfield.
The fire was reported at 9:53 a.m. Thursday and firefighters were on the scene until around 11:45 a.m.
Due to the snowstorm engulfing the area Thursday, many of the volunteer firefighters involved in the West Gardiner fire spent much of the rest of the day responding to numerous reports of downed trees and wires in their communities.
The snowy conditions slowed the response to the fire scene but otherwise had no effect on the ability to fight the fire, Gross said. High Street was in pretty good shape at the time, he said, so trucks were able to get to the fire scene without trouble.
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