Firefighters battle a house fire on Waterville Road in Skowhegan Thursday around 4:30 p.m. The home was destroyed and its owner was injured, fire Chief Ronnie Rodriguez said. Jake Freudberg/Morning Sentinel

SKOWHEGAN — Firefighters were battling a fire on Waterville Road Thursday evening that destroyed a home and injured one person.

The home at 706 Waterville Road, a ranch-style structure about three miles north of the Sappi paper mill and about three miles south of the center of Skowhegan, appeared to have completely collapsed.

The homeowner was injured in the fire and transported to a hospital via ambulance, according to Chief Ronnie Rodriguez of the Skowhegan Fire Department. Nobody else was believed to be home when the fire broke out.

The person made it out of the house and suffered severe burns, the Maine Department of Public Safety said in a news release around 6:15 p.m. The injured person was being treated at that time at Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan and was expected to be transported to another hospital via LifeFlight helicopter.

Smoke rises over Waterville Road in Skowhegan, where a home was destroyed by a fire late Thursday afternoon. The homeowner was injured in the fast-moving fire. Jake Freudberg/Morning Sentinel

“It’s a bad deal,” Rodriguez said while on scene Thursday around 4:30 p.m., as smoke continued to rise from the collapsed home more than an hour after firefighters responded.

Firefighters from several area communities were dispatched to the fire at 3:06 p.m., Rodriguez said. When first responders arrived, the fire was fully involved, with large flames visible.

Waterville Road was closed to all traffic as of 4:30 p.m. Northbound traffic was being diverted to Varney Road and then Middle Road to reach Skowhegan, while southbound traffic was being diverted to South Factory Street and then Middle Road.

Rodriguez said then that he had no estimate of when the road would reopen. The fire was still burning beneath the remains of the structure, Rodriguez said, and crews were waiting for an excavator to arrive to assist with efforts to fully extinguish remaining hot spots.

“We’re going to be here for a while,” he said.

The cause of the fire was unknown as of Thursday evening, and investigators from the Office of State Fire Marshal were on scene.

With firefighters still working to fully put out the fire, the investigation was in its early stages, said Shawn Esler, state fire marshal, who was on scene with other investigators from his office.

Responding fire departments included Canaan, Cornville, Fairfield-Benton, Madison, Norridgewock, Skowhegan, and Waterville. Several Skowhegan and Fairfield police officers also assisted with traffic control, and a Redington-Fairview General Hospital EMS ambulance was staging on scene.

The Office of State Fire Marshal is investigating a fire that destroyed a home at 706 Waterville Road in Skowhegan. The homeower, who suffered severe burns, was taken to the hospital. Photo courtesy of the Office of State Fire Marshal

Rodriguez, the Skowhegan fire chief, said he appreciated the strong response from other communities. But resources can be stretched thin during major incidents, with largely volunteer fire departments, he said.

While at the Waterville Road fire, first responders were also dispatched to a serious vehicle crash in Norridgewock, Rodriguez said.

“This is the crisis facing rural Maine,” Rodriguez said.