March 1

Fire destroys two-story home in St. Albans Friday morning

By Rachel Ohm rohm@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

ST. ALBANS — A fire on Ross Hill Road destroyed a two-story home early Friday morning.

The fire was reported to the Somerset County Communications dispatch office at 5 a.m. and took fire departments from four towns about three hours to extinguish.

Amos Lawrence, 48, said he wasn’t home when the fire started about 5 a.m.; but his wife, Bonnie, was awakened by smoke detectors. 

Lawrence said he got a phone call from his wife, then called the Fire Department and went home from his job plowing snow. 

The house, at 160 Ross Hill Road, was nine years old, and the couple has lived there the entire time, Lawrence said. It is a total loss but no one was hurt, he said.

“The only thing standing is the chimney,” Lawrence said Friday afternoon. 

St. Albans Fire Chief Jason Emery said the town has had four or five fires since the beginning of the year. The cause and origin of Friday’s fire was undetermined, he said, adding that the state fire marshal would not be investigating the fire because there was nothing left to examine.

“There was so much damage there would be no way to pinpoint it,” Emery said.

The property is on a narrow road in a rural area about five miles from the fire station and was hard to get to, Emery said. The location, as well as bad weather and slippery, roads slowed the firefighters’ response, he said, causing them to take almost 20 minutes to reach the house.

“The road was our biggest problem. It was icy, slippery and snow-covered,” Emery said.

Lawrence said he and his wife have insurance and he also has relatives in town.

“I’m not sure where we will be staying, but we’ve had a lot of support,” said Lawrence. 

Firefighters from Canaan, Dexter, Hartland and St. Albans helped extinguish the fire.

Rachel Ohm —  612-2368
rohm@mainetoday.com

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