Firefighters battle a house fire on South Clary Road in Jefferson on the morning of Friday, April 5. (Molly Rains photo)
A Friday, April 5 house fire on South Clary Road in Jefferson resulted in the complete destruction of a home over the course of a day, said Jefferson Fire Chief Darin Walker. No residents were in the home at the time and there were no injuries, he said.
The Lincoln County Communications Center paged the Jefferson Fire Department and mutual aid partners at about 7 a.m. on April 5. Walker said that a neighbor placed the initial call after spotting smoke and flames at the home. Whitefield Fire Chief Jesse Barton, who was in the area plowing driveways, was first on the scene and reported that flames had reached the second story windows soon after.
“It was a working fire from the time we were notified,” Walker said. With no one home, he added, “who knows how long of a head start it had before anybody noticed it?”
Nine fire departments — Jefferson, Alna, Damariscotta, Newcastle, Nobleboro, Somerville, Waldoboro, Whitefield, and Windsor — responded to the fire, as well as Central Lincoln County Ambulance Service and the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. More than a mile of South Clary Road was closed surrounding the fire.
The major challenge in fighting the fire, said Walker, was access to water.
“That was a problem like it always is, setting up a water supply,” he said. “We don’t have any hydrants in the area, so we had to haul water from Clary Lake.”
The extent of the fire made it impossible for firefighters to enter the building, so crews eventually had to tear the remains of the structure down with an excavator in order to fully extinguish the fire, Walker said. The scene was ultimately cleared at 4 p.m.
“It was a stubborn fire,” Walker said. “It wasn’t safe to get into … to completely extinguish it, we unfortunately had to tear down the rest of the house.”
Walker said that the cause of the fire was still unknown as of the afternoon of Monday, April 9. However, he said that the fire did not appear to be suspicious. The homeowners were believed to have home insurance.
Walker said he was grateful for the assistance of mutual aid departments and surrounding towns.
“We can’t do it without them,” he said.
Correction
The article “Nine-hour fire levels Jefferson home” in the April 11 edition of The Lincoln County News misstated the address of the home. The fire occurred at 1400 South Clary Road. The Lincoln County News regrets this error.
