A fire that destroyed a mobile home in Waldoboro on Nov. 14 was intentionally set and began in the structure’s bathroom, according to Sgt. Ken Grimes of the State Fire Marshal’s Office.
Grimes said Nov. 18 investigators are finished with the scene but the investigation is on-going and no arrests have yet been made.
The mobile home was a total loss as a result of the fire, according to Waldoboro Fire Chief Paul Smeltzer.
Waldoboro Fire Department was paged out to the fire just before 11:20 a.m.
“When I got there, there was heavy smoke on the front side of the trailer and very little fire out the front door,” Smeltzer said Nov. 19.
Going around the building, however, there was “significant fire” showing out the back side of the trailer, he said.
“It had broken the window in what we determined to be the living room,” Smeltzer said.
Waldoboro Police Chief Bill Labombarde said the building was home to Elizabeth Cunningham and her son, and their roommate Eric Buckley. They were tenants in the home, according to Smeltzer.
One Warren firefighter was transported by emergency medical services as a precautionary measure but was shortly released and was present at training that evening, Smeltzer said. There were no other injuries, he said.
Two portable propane tanks were taken out of the home by firefighters, but were not involved in the fire itself and had been used inside the home to fuel supplemental heat sources, Smeltzer said.
“We tell people do not do that. It is incredibly dangerous. Those type of heating units produce a tremendous amount of carbon monoxide, which is deadly,” and the tanks posed a risk to the firefighters themselves since the tanks might have exploded in the fire, he said.
A tank of heating oil on the rear side of the home was intact despite the fire, Smeltzer said.
Waldoboro Fire Department was assisted at the scene by departments from Warren and Union while Friendship covered the Waldoboro station, Smeltzer said.
Traffic was stopped in both directions at the southern end of Union Road for over an hour before Labombarde opened the road once more to traffic at 12:36 p.m.
Several members of Waldoboro Fire Department remained on scene into the early evening hours of Nov. 14 as the fire marshal’s office investigated. Investigators returned to the scene on Nov. 15.