Second fire in six months hits vacant Dixfield house

DIXFIELD — Firefighters from Dixfield, Mexico, and Peru responded to a structure fire late Friday night in a vacant house at 20 Park Ave.

Med-Care Ambulance and Mexico and Dixfield police, who were at Dirigo High School's homecoming festivities just up the road, also responded.

A quick knockdown prevented the fire from spreading to the rest of the house, neighbors said while standing in the rain on their lawns watching firefighters enter and vent the building.

Dense smoke poured out of the western side of the house near the roof peak by 9 p.m. as firefighters inside tried to extinguish it. A smaller column of smoke streamed out the eastern side of the house from the roof peak.

The fire was first reported to Oxford County emergency dispatchers as smoke showing. The first arriving emergency responder then radioed in that it was a fully-involved structure fire.

“When I saw it, flames were coming out the back of the house from the roof eaves,” next-door neighbor Joel Fulford of 16 Park Ave. said. “The fire was coming from where the (electrical) wires go in and all the smoke was just rolling out the vents.

He said a girl from the neighborhood ran to his home and alerted him to the fire.

“Four-foot-long flames were shooting right out right where the wires come out,” he said.

Pointing to a live electrical wire hanging from a utility pole on the opposite side of the street, Fulford said the wire, which appeared to be partially connected to the building, was hanging down low when he first saw it.

A Central Maine Power Co. lineman arrived at 9:38 p.m. and shut off electrical power to the house.

Fulford said Friday's fire was the building's second fire this year.

According to the Dixfield selectmen minutes from May 11, owner Denise Letalien of 20 Park Ave. filed for and received a temporary disconnection from the town sewer system, because the building had first caught fire on May 3.

Firefighters arrived to find windows still boarded up with plywood, on which was written in large red letters, “For Sale.”

“They had a tough time getting in, but once they did, it only took them a few minutes to put it out,” Fulford said.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

Terry Karkos/Sun Journal
Smoke rises into the Friday night's rain from a structure fire at a vacant house at 20 Park Ave. in Dixfield that first burned six months. Charred wood outside and inside indicated where Friday night's flames erupted.

Buy a print

- Terry Karkos/Sun Journal

Terry Karkos/Sun Journal
A live electrical wire hangs down from a vacant house at 20 Park Ave. that caught fire in Dixfield late Friday night. Dixfield firefighters set up a perimeter of traffic cones to prevent responders from four towns from walking under the dangling wire as they maneuvered from equipment from fire trucks to the scene. Smoke filled downtown Dixfield, partially obscuring visibility for drivers.

Buy a print

- Terry Karkos/Sun Journal