Copyright 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc.
Portland Press Herald (Maine)
RICHMOND, Maine - Firefighters managed to confine a fire to the overhead storage room of a garage Sunday evening on Alexander Reed Road, preventing it from spreading to the adjoining house. No one was injured in the blaze, which the homeowner, Matt Smith, reported about 5 p.m.
“He was working on a tractor in the garage and heard crackling. He looked up . . . and could see the flames,” said Glenn DeWitt, Richmond’s deputy fire chief.
Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Deputy Ian Alexander and Mike Averell, both volunteer firefighters and neighbors, went directly to the scene and met with two suited firefighters who arrived on a firetruck.
“Four guys attacked it right away,” DeWitt said. “My guys had a fantastic save. It was all confined to the upstairs of the garage.”
Richmond firefighters, with assistance from Gardiner’s ladder truck and Bowdoin, Bowdoinham and Dresden firefighters, were at the scene for about two hours.
DeWitt said clothing and sports equipment that had been stored upstairs was destroyed.
“One cat disappeared, which we found alive today (Monday) while we were investigating,” he said.
DeWitt said a state fire marshal concluded that smoking materials had started the fire.
“There was no real structural damage at all,” DeWitt said. “It could have been worse, a whole lot worse.”