By Christina Sobran
The Morning Sentinel
UNITY, Maine — Second Assistant Fire Chief Melvin Perkins was returning from a fire Monday afternoon when he learned his own home was ablaze.
“There was nobody home at the time,” said Perkins, who has volunteered for the Unity Fire Department for nearly 24 years. “There was a lady walking by who noticed smoke coming from up the road. She noticed it was on fire and called it in.”
The fire occurred about 2:10 p.m., according to Doris Mower of the American Red Cross.
Perkins and his fellow firefighters had just finished dousing a blaze in a trash truck on Quaker Hill Road. He said that was fortunate, in a sense, because a team was already together when he learned that his double-wide modular home at 231 Stagecoach Road was on fire.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much the team could do.
“We lost everything,” Perkins said.
Perkins lived at the residence with his companion, Tammy Knowlton, who was working nearby on School Street; and her son Matthew Creasy, who was working in Bangor at the time.
Three dogs were saved, but a cat perished, Knowlton said.
“It’s devastating,” Knowlton said, noting that her previous home on the same property burned about eight years ago.
The fire marshal determined the cause of the blaze was faulty wiring, they said.
The home was insured.
The American Red Cross has provided the family with short-term help, Mower said.
Anyone wishing to help the family should contact the Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross at 941-2903. Knowlton said they need of “normal everyday things.”
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