By Tim Badgley
Three firefighters take the hose to the ground to battle back the last of the flames that leveled a barn off Farnum Point Road in Boothbay, Monday, Aug. 4. (Tim Badgley photo) |
A fire at 14 Fishhawk Hill Road in Boothbay leveled a barn and left property owner Seth Hedgecock with second-degree burns on one arm on Monday morning, Aug. 4.
Hedgecock was treated at the scene by Boothbay Region Ambulance Service personnel and was not transported to a hospital.
The fire was reported at 9:08 a.m. The Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Edgecomb, Newcastle, and Southport fire departments responded to the scene. The Wiscasset Fire Department covered Boothbay’s station.
By 9:45 a.m., the barn had been reduced to charred remains. The windshield of a crushed vehicle was visible rising less than 2 feet above the burnt rubble.
Boothbay Fire Chief Dick Spofford said the fire began while Hedgecock was attempting to find a gas leak under one of his cars with the use of a drop light.
“Gasoline fell onto the light bulb, exploded and ignited the car,” Spofford said. “Two cars and a truck were lost in the fire.”
The barn was about 26 by 42 feet. It was insured, Spofford said.
Fishhawk Hill Road is a dirt road off Farnum Point Road, which rises at a fairly sharp incline off Route 96 in East Boothbay. A pumper truck attached to the hydrant at the intersection of the two roads sent water via a hose up the hill, a distance that was easily more than 1,000 feet.
A relay of tanker trucks from Southport and Newcastle were seen delivering water to a drop tank stationed behind a stationary pumper truck near the barn, providing additional water to help extinguish the fire.
Newcastle Fire Department Chief Clayton Huntley, right, oversees the transfer of water to a drop tank from the tanker truck he drove to the scene of a barn fire in Boothbay Aug, 4. (Tim Badgley photo) |
