The Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office said the “careless disposal” of rags with linseed oil on them contributed to a fire at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset June 5.
The rags spontaneously combusted, damaging a garage outside the main jail facility, State Fire Marshal’s Office Sgt. Ken Grimes said.
The rags were placed in a trash container while wet, Grimes said. The proper method to dispose of the rags is to lay the rags flat to dry prior to disposal. The common woodworking product can self-heat and eventually self-combust in certain conditions.
Wiscasset firefighters, with assistance from six area fire departments, extinguished the fire. “Nobody got hurt,” Wiscasset Fire Chief T.J. Merry said. “Nobody was in the building.”
The fire caused “pretty extensive” damage to the garage and some expensive equipment inside, Merry said.
The building is “a three-bay garage out back of the facility where the inmates do painting and woodworking” and similar activities, Merry said. The fire “was contained to one room” of the garage.
The Wiscasset Fire Department was paged out at 5:55 a.m. and cleared the scene at approximately 8:15 a.m., Merry said.
“We had another great response from our mutual aid companies,” Merry said. The Alna, Bath, Dresden, Edgecomb, Westport Island, and Woolwich fire departments provided mutual aid. Edgecomb and Dresden covered Wiscasset’s fire station.
