A fire that caused significant damage to a second floor, part of a roof and the lower portion of an Edgecomb home on the River Road Monday morning is believed to have started from a pellet stove.
Edgecomb Fire Chief Roy Potter said he arrived and took command of the scene at the home of David Nutt at 9:50 a.m. March 8, joining firefighters from his department and the mutual aid departments of Boothbay, Wiscasset and Newcastle. He confirmed there were no injuries as a result of the fire.
“It appears embers had come out of a vent,” Potter said, adding the cedar shingle siding quickly caught fire from the embers and spread to the roof.
He said Nutt’s son, who was home alone at the time, heard the fire alarm and saw the flames through a window in the back of the house. Potter guessed the son contacted his father, who was working in his boatyard workshop, which is located at the end of the family’s roughly half-mile long driveway next to the River Road. The call from Lincoln County Communications went out at 9:34 a.m.
Firefighters set up two tanker engines at the edge of a pond roughly halfway down the dirt drive. Emergency personnel maintained traffic control by the drive’s entrance, which is near the intersection of the McKay Road and River Road. Several firefighters went directly to the scene of the fire to run water lines and enter the home.
Potter said there was an issue getting to the hot point (the center) of the fire, as it was emitting from a dead space above the ceiling of the two sections of the home where they connect forming an “L.” The flames licked up under the eaves and erupted in the asphalt shingles, spreading to the roof’s peak.
Nutt told Potter he thought he was going to lose the whole house and had started to take valuables outside. The family had two cats that had been in the upstairs section under the attack of flames, but made it out safely, Potter said.
An interior team opened up the second floor sky light windows to ventilate the area and minimize damage. Despite their best efforts, the fire had caused significant damage to the upstairs, with smoke and water damage downstairs.
Potter estimated there was about $100,000 in damages to the home, which Nutt said was valued between $300,000 – $350,000. Potter said the home is insured, however, and added Nutt was grateful for the quick response of firefighters.
“We had an outstanding turnout with mutual aid towns,” Potter said. “That pond was a life saver. It was in a good spot and it worked out really well.”
The family is staying in the home, Potter said. An electrician arranged for the unburned section of the house to have electricity restored. An official from the State Fire Marshal’s Office was expected to inspect the home on Tuesday to assess the fire damage. Potter said the fire was not suspicious, but an assessment is necessary with fires that cause such significant damage.
