A home at 30 Maranacook Road in Winthrop was destroyed Friday night in a fire that apparently started after a kerosene heater was used to try to thaw pipes under it.

A woman and her son and daughter were home at the time of the fire, which was reported about 10 p.m. and spread up into the area between the ceiling and roof, according to Winthrop fire Chief Dan Brooks.

Brooks said Saturday that no one was injured in the fire but he was told the woman who lived in the one-story double-wide manufactured house went to a hospital to be checked for smoke inhalation. He said some items that were stored in boxes or drawers in the house might be salvageable.

“But for all intents and purposes, it’s a loss,” Brooks said.

He said the homeowner and a neighbor share a well and the neighbor owns the 80,000 BTU kerosene heater used to try to thaw the pipes. The neighbor took the kerosene heater back home afterward and about 30 minutes later reported her water still wasn’t working. That’s when it was discovered the home was on fire.

Winthrop police were the first to arrive at the scene, and when firefighters arrived there were flames under the home and, in a room just above it, a hot water heater was on fire, according to Brooks.

He said firefighters stopped the blaze.

“The back of the house never caught on fire but it had heavy heat and smoke damage,” he said.

The Monmouth and Manchester fire departments automatically responded to the scene and departments in the Lakes Region arrived to help with supplying water, according to Brooks. They included the Readfield, Wayne, Mount Vernon, Vienna and Fayette fire departments. Between 45 and 50 firefighters were at the scene, he said. Central Maine Power Co. crews also responded.

Brooks said he was told the homeowner and son and daughter went to stay with her sister in a nearby town. Firefighters left the scene three hours later, about 1 a.m., he said.

He said the structure fire was the third the department responded to in less than a week and the first two homes apparently did not have working smoke detectors.

“We’ve had three home appliance issues per se and we have homes without smoke detectors in them and that’s just absolutely critical,” he said.

Brooks said he tends to recommend that people use a plumber or heating professional to thaw pipes.

He said he did not call the state Fire Marshal’s Office about the fire as the police department did an investigation and the cause was determined.

“We think it was just purely accidental,” he said.

Maranacook Road is off Route 41, about a half-mile from the Readfield town line, he said.