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This home on the Hartland Road in Athens was occupied by Earland and Freda Rowell who operated Rowell’s General Store until ending in the late 1990s. David Leaming/Morning Sentinel file

ATHENS — A garage fire Tuesday morning damaged an Athens home that was once a general store, a fire official said.

Firefighters were called to 38 Hartland Road, formerly Rowell’s General Store, around 7:45 a.m., according to Chief Travis Thompson of the Athens Volunteer Fire Department.

The fire completely destroyed an attached garage and a separate garage, Thompson said.

Firefighters were able to stop it from spreading to the dwelling, he said, though it was damaged by smoke and fire.

An elderly woman who lives at the home was inside when the fire started and a passerby helped her get out of the home before the fire department arrived, Thompson said.

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She was not injured and her family was on the scene, so she likely has a place to stay, he said.

The state fire marshal’s office is investigating the cause of the fire. Thompson said it appeared to be caused by a vehicle inside one of the garages.

Fire departments from Canaan, Cornville, Harmony, Madison, Skowhegan and other towns responded to assist, Thompson said.

“We had a really good response from a bunch of towns,” he said.

Firefighters cleared the scene around 11:30 a.m., Thompson said.

Athens tax records from November 2024 list the property’s owner as Curi J. Poulin, in care of Dianne Corson.

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Rowell’s General Store closed in 1999, according to previous Morning Sentinel reports.

Its owners, Earland and Freda Rowell, died in 2007 and 2018, respectively, a 2018 Sentinel feature obituary about Freda Rowell reported. Corson is their daughter, according to the story.

“The shelves at Rowell’s General Store held everything from boats and boots, long johns, TV sets, roller skates, rope, shotguns and ammunition to wristwatches, hurricane lamps, fish hooks and groceries,” longtime reporter and Athens resident Doug Harlow wrote in the story.

A story in a May 1998 edition of the Sentinel reported the Rowells were planning to close their store, which had been in business for decades, because of new technology for processing food stamps.

This story in the May 3, 1998, edition of the Morning Sentinel explains why Rowell’s General Store in Athens was closing. Morning Sentinel archives via Newspapers.com

Jake covers public safety, courts and immigration in central Maine. He started reporting at the Morning Sentinel in November 2023 and previously covered all kinds of news in Skowhegan and across Somerset...

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