LEWISTON - Friends of a Mechanic Falls family who lost their home Sunday in a fire have created the Dennis and Robin Dufour Family Fund to gather donations.

"We're just at the beginning stages of doing this," said Pat Long-Cressey, a real estate agent at Century 21 in Lewiston, where Dennis Dufour also works. "We're doing our best to help. And they need so much."

On Sunday afternoon, the family's home on Riverside Drive in Mechanic Falls burned. The couple lived there for 20 years.

Robin Dufour and daughters Mariah, 12, and Katelyn, 7, had been out snowtubing and were visiting Wal-Mart when they received a phone call that the house was on fire.

Damage was estimated at more than $100,000, and insurance is expected to cover some of it.

"The house was totaled," Long-Cressey said.

Within hours, bags of donated clothes arrived.

"I'm from this community. There's a huge support here," Dennis Dufour said Sunday. His wife is a longtime education technician at Elm Street Elementary School.

The recovery will take months, Long-Cressey predicted. She and other co-workers pondered how to best help the Dufours. Finally, they decided that giving them lots of clothes, furniture or appliances might be tough.

"People are willing to help," she said. "We don't want to give them six microwaves. And they probably wouldn't know where to put them."

The fund is being collected at Rainbow Federal Credit Union at 391 Main St. in Lewiston. People may stop by the branch to make a donation or they may send a check, made out to the Dennis and Robin Dufour Family Fund.