AUGUSTA — Firefighters extinguished a fire Tuesday morning in a vacant apartment building on Sand Hill after a neighbor saw smoke and called for help.
Fire damaged one unit of the under-renovation, two-unit apartment building at 24 Kendall St., on the corner with Jefferson Street.
Deputy Fire Chief Steve Leach said firefighters got the call to respond at 6:42 a.m. Tuesday after a neighbor saw smoke and reported the fire.
“Crews got a really quick knock-down and got it out pretty quickly,” Leach said. “That quick notification from a neighbor made a big difference. Another 10 minutes and this could have been a completely different outcome.”
Leach said the cause of the fire appeared to be accidental.
The two-unit building was under renovation including painting and other improvements which Leach said were close to being completed.
The building is owned by Timothy and Elizabeth McIver of South Portland, according to city property records. The two-story residence was built in 1937.
Firefighters responded to a call for mutual aid from departments including Gardiner, Togus, Winthrop, Chelsea and Vassalboro, but, Leach said, they were released after about a half hour when it was clear the fire was under control. No firefighters were injured in the fire.
Flames and smoke were coming out of the front of the building when firefighters arrived. Fire damage was limited to one room of one of the apartment units.
Leach said the building is fixable.
Kendall Street, which runs between Jefferson Street and Northern Avenue, was briefly closed during the fire.
Another residential structure which appears to be within roughly a foot of the 24 Kendall St. building appeared to be undamaged by the fire.
The Sand Hill neighborhood of the city contains many older residential buildings, many of them situated closely together.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
