By Dominik Lobkowicz
Flames pour out of a burning mobile home in Waldoboro Jan. 2. (D. Lobkowicz photo)
Updated Jan. 8 at 1:50 p.m.
Local firefighters fought not only flames but snowy roads and cold temperatures as they attempted to save a mobile home that was ravaged by fire the evening of Jan. 2.
Waldoboro Fire Department was paged out to a fire near 432 Gross Neck Road at 8:12 p.m.
The fire was the second structure fire in Waldoboro within a week after a home was lost on Friendship Road Dec. 27, 2013. Nearby, Bremen and Bristol both lost structures to fire within the same time period.
After an investigation, Fire Chief Paul Smeltzer said he was confident the fire began in the area of a wood stove in an addition of the mobile home.
“We’re not sure if it was the stovepipe or the wood stove that was the actual cause of the fire due to the extent of the damage around it,” Smeltzer said Jan 7.
Smeltzer said he had shared the findings of the investigation with the State Fire Marshal’s Office and their investigator concurred with the findings.
When Smeltzer first arrived at the fire, he said the flames were concentrated in the addition.
A neighbor was on their cell phone with the resident of the mobile home when Smeltzer arrived, and they assured Smeltzer no one was inside the structure, he said.
The home was owned by Jericho Sanborn, according to Smeltzer, but he was still not sure of the identity of the resident as of Jan. 7.
Once the fire spread beyond the addition, the rest of the structure was in flames within minutes.
A number of small explosions occurred within the building as Smeltzer waited for trucks to arrive, and he passed instructions via the radio that no one would be heading inside the structure.
“I don’t want ’em too close,” Smeltzer said to the firefighters in the first truck when it arrived. “Things are exploding like crazy out there.”
After firefighters had water flowing onto the blaze, Smeltzer directed two of them near a Chevrolet Impala parked about six feet from the end of the mobile home, and the car was saved.
In the blowing snow, two Waldoboro firefighters prepare to put the first water on a burning mobile home
on Gross Neck Jan. 2. (D. Lobkowicz photo)
Fire departments from Bremen, Nobleboro, and Warren assisted Waldoboro at the scene, but the temperatures at and below zero complicated to their efforts.
Smeltzer said he was trying to feed the attack engine directly from the tankers, which he planned to send back to their stations to thaw.
“They were having difficulty, because of the temperatures outside, in making those connections,” he said. “So, we had to resort to using the dump tank.”
Had weather conditions been different, there might have been a different outcome for the home, Smeltzer said.
“Weather certainly hampered our response time, but everyone got here safely, without incident,” he said.
Waldoboro Police Department and Waldoboro EMS also responded to the scene.
