A 93-year-old Boothbay man probably would not be alive if it wasn’t for the actions of his neighbor.
John Alley’s house on Beath Road in Boothbay caught fire around 8:30 p.m. on Nov. 20. The fire started around an exterior light fixture and quickly spread up the front of the house and into the attic, said Boothbay Fire Chief Richard Spofford.
The battery was dead in his smoke detector, and Alley was asleep.
Several of Alley’s neighbors saw the blaze and got another neighbor, Jody Lewis, who had returned home from work about 10 minutes earlier.
Lewis broke through Alley’s back door and pulled him from the burning home.
“If [Alley] had been in there another 10 minutes, he probably would have died,” Spofford said. When asked if Lewis saved Alley’s life, Spofford said, “Oh, definitely.”
No one was hurt in the fire.
The water and smoke damage to the home was “pretty heavy,” but the fire damage was “pretty minimal – for fire damage anyway,” Spofford said.
Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Southport and Edgecomb fire departments all responded to the scene. The fire was out by 9 p.m., and firefighters cleared the scene by 11 p.m., Spofford said.
