Three people are homeless after an early morning fire destroyed a two-story home on Gordon Hill Road in Thorndike Sunday.
The family was asleep around 4 a.m. and was woken up by their dog, who jumped on their bed and started howling, said Capt. Henry Chaffee of the Thorndike Fire Department. The family, which includes a husband and wife and the mother of one of the couple, was not at the scene later Sunday morning and their names were not immediately available.
Chaffee described the fire as a “crazy scene” and said that flames were showing from the right side of the house when firefighters arrived. The house at 96 Gordon Hill Road is directly across from the fire station.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, and investigators from the Office of the Maine State Fire Marshal will be at the scene Monday, Chaffee said. It is believed to have started in a back corner of the house. No injuries were reported, and the origin is not considered to be suspicious.
“(The fire) was lighting up the home right next to it, so there was also a threat of another house catching fire if we hadn’t gotten to it on time,” Chaffee said. “The people were obviously sleeping and their dog jumped up on their bed and started howling and going nuts. That’s when they woke up and heard the smoke alarms. They immediately bolted out the door.”
Firefighters from eight departments responded to the fire, including Freedom, Unity, Jackson, Troy, Liberty, Montville and Brooks. Unity Ambulance was also at the scene.
In the midst of the fire, several departments were called away to a chimney fire in Brooks and then to a rollover accident in Unity, Chaffee said. “Three-quarters of our mutual aid had to leave the scene to go to the chimney fire, so it was nuts,” he said. “It was really crazy this morning.”
Firefighters cleared the scene at Gordon Hill Road at around 9:30 a.m. The occupants of the home are staying at a hotel in Belfast, and while they did have insurance on their house, they lost everything, Chaffee said.
Rachel Ohm — 612-2368
Twitter: @rachel_ohm
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