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February 13

Readfield fire guts home

READFIELD — A family of three is homeless after a fire ripped through their Plains Road home late Sunday night.

Fire Chief Lee Mank said the fire in the two-story home at 110 Plains Road started in a chimney and quickly spread to the second floor and attic, gutting the inside in the process.

Three people, a couple and their grown child, who were inside when the fire broke out were able to escape safely, Mank said. There were no injuries.

“I believe smoke detectors woke them up,” Mank said. “They awoke to a house filled with smoke and (they said) it was very hard for them to breathe. There was a lot of heat.”

Mank declined to identify those inside the house at the time of the fire, but town records indicate the home is owned by Kevin and Noreen Boucher.

The home is insured. Mank said the Red Cross was called to assist the family.

“They are staying with relatives,” he said.

The fire broke out around 11:30 p.m., Sunday, and spread quickly through one end of the house.

“The inside was pretty well engulfed,” when the first firefighters arrived, Mank said. The fire started around a wood-heating appliance on the first floor and reached the second floor and attic .

“It was toned out as a chimney fire with fire coming through the walls,” Mank said.

Crews from Readfield and the five other Lakes Region Mutual Aid communities — Fayette, Manchester, Mount Vernon, Vienna and Wayne — as well as Belgrade and Winthrop responded to the fire. Mank said the extra equipment was needed to keep water running in temperatures that dropped into the low single digits.

“That definitely was a factor,” Mank said. “We had trucks freezing up and we didn’t know how long we were going to be there.”

Mank said crews were able to maintain an ample supply of water throughout the evening.

The fire was under control by 1:30 a.m., Monday, Mank said. The last firefighters left at 3:15 a.m.

Mank said it was unnecessary to call for an investigator from the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

“It was painfully obvious where it had started,” Mank said.

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