By J.W. Oliver
Portions of a concrete wall and a metal roof are all that remain of a brand new house on Rockland Road in Jefferson Tuesday, Feb. 3. The house burned Monday, Feb. 2. (J.W. Oliver photo) |
Updated Feb. 4 at 12:55 p.m.
Fire destroyed a new house on Rockland Road (Route 17) in Jefferson Monday night, Feb. 2. The homeowner planned to move in this week, Jefferson Fire Chief Wally Morris said.
The home at 313 Rockland Rd. was vacant and there were no injuries in the fire or the response, Morris said.
State Fire Marshal’s Office Sgt. Ken Grimes said the cause of the fire is “undetermined due to extensive damage.”
“We were unable to pinpoint an exact origin and cause,” Grimes said. There is “nothing that would indicate that it’s anything other than an accident, but it’s
officially listed as undetermined.”
Jeremy Tillson owns the house, Morris said. He has homeowners insurance.
Monday’s snowstorm complicated the response to the fire, Morris said. The house sits several hundred feet from the road and the driveway had not been plowed. A
firefighter who was among the first to arrive at the scene plowed the driveway.
“It was challenging,” Morris said. “It was still snowing heavily at the time. The wind was still whipping pretty good.”
“Firefighters had to wade through chest-deep snow in some cases with the drifts,” Morris said.
The temperature was zero or slightly below, which caused issues with hose lines, trucks, and other equipment.
“We had to send a couple of trucks back because they were experiencing icing and freezing problems,” Morris said.
The rural location lacks hydrants, which means firefighters had to shuttle tankers back and forth to a water supply. The shuttle effort worked smoothly, Morris said.
“We utilized a dry hydrant in the river in Coopers Mills, so it was about 2 miles from the fire scene,” Morris said. Despite the distance, “We never ran out of
water,” he said.
The Nobleboro, Pittston, Somerville, Waldoboro, Washington, Whitefield, and Windsor fire departments assisted Jefferson at the scene, while Newcastle covered
Jefferson’s station.
Jefferson emergency medical technicians and Waldoboro Emergency Medical Services also responded to the scene.
There were about 40 firefighters on the scene, Morris said. He cleared the scene at about 2:15 a.m. Tuesday.
Morris said a “big thank you to the firefighters and the mutual-aid towns” for their efforts.
“Everybody works well together and everybody worked hard and, of course, the most important thing was, there were no injuries,” Morris said.
Monday’s fire was the third house fire in the area within a week. The scene is about 2 1/2 miles from the scene of a Jan. 27 fire on Mills Road in Whitefield and 7
1/4 miles from the scene of a Sunday, Feb. 1 fire on Patricktown Road in Somerville.
