An early morning Friday fire forced a Barter Island couple and their two small children to flee to safety with their dog before the blaze gutted the inside.
The fire reportedly began in a nearby shed where owner Don Clark, a local lobsterman, had been cutting bait late Thursday night.
Clark and his wife Sarah, daughter Abbie, 1, and Ryan, 3, woke up in the middle of the night to discover the shed all ablaze. The escaped unharmed along with Roxie, the family German Shepard.
“My daughter called me screaming,” said Sarah’s father Darin Graves of Boothbay Harbor. “I told her to get the kids out.”
Boothbay Fire Dept. arrived along with mutual aid from five support fire agencies to put out the conflagration and managed to complete their task later in the morning.
Fire officials have been investigating the cause, as yet undetermined. Family members said they believe it began in the shed heated by a wood stove where Clark had been working earlier.