NORWAY – The Norway Color Center was destroyed in an explosive fire of unknown origin early Thursday morning, fueled by paints, lacquers and solvents.

The owners’ son and his family fled their second-floor apartment unharmed.

Firefighters from nine towns encircled the home decorating business at 250 Main St., pouring streams of water through second-story windows and on the roof for nearly three hours.

The business, owned by Arnold “Arnie” Pendexter of Oxford and his ex-wife, Verna Pendexter, of Norway, was located in two buildings joined by a large walkway.

Their son, Ross Pendexter, 27, lived over the business with his wife, Jill, 24, and son Garrett, 1. Ross said he went downstairs to the shop around 5:05 a.m. to start a pot of coffee. He was running late and it was his custom to start a pot for the businesses’ early arrivals.

“When I opened the doors to the store it seemed like someone was walking around,” he said. “It creeped me out,” he said, referring to the eerie noise the fire made beneath him in the early morning silence.

Then he heard an explosion in the basement, he said, and saw smoke starting to come from the large vent near the front door.

Hasty escape

“I ran upstairs and got my wife and son,” Ross said. “We had to run through the store to get out.”

“We lost everything,” Ross said.

Clad only in his underwear, Ross ran next door to the apartment over the Hair & Company shop at 248 Main St. to get his brother, he said.

Chad Pendexter and Jennifer Cousins took their two dogs and cat and left.

Five minutes later the firetrucks arrived at the scene.

Norway police officer Jim Ventresca said he pulled up just before the Fire Department and saw a little smoke coming out of the windows and a lot out of the chimney.

Norway Fire Chief Mike Mann said one engine and two ladder trucks attacked the fire from the rear and four engines and two ladder trucks took the fire head-on from Main Street.

The Fire Department sent a crew to the basement to investigate.

Mann said there were several rapid explosions and the crew scrambled out.

“I heard the explosions and then shortly after that a giant fireball came out of the front of the building,” Ventresca said. “Then the fireball spread across the first floor ceiling to the other building.”

The fire began before 5 a.m. and was not under control until nearly 8 a.m.

Other fire departments called were Paris, Oxford, Waterford, Otisfield, Harrison, Casco, Mechanic Falls and Poland.

Mann estimated more than 60 firefighters were on scene.

They surrounded the building and threw up a stream of water to keep the fire from spreading to Hair & Co.

Aerial ladder trucks pumped jet streams down into the inferno while men with hoses attacked the fire through the windows.

As firefighters doused one area, clouds of brown and black smoke were released engulfing those on the scene.

Power was shut off by Central Maine Power to the surrounding areas. Main Street was shut down for four blocks from Danforth Street to Marston Street.

At 6:30 a.m. Mann ordered the boarding house at 256 Main St. evacuated. Shortly after 7:30 a.m. the roof collapsed on the main building and at 7:55 firefighters seemed to gain the upper hand.

Mann said thousands of gallons were used to contain the blaze, with water being pumped at about 800 gallons per minute.

At about 9:30 a.m. Everett Excavation was called in to push down the walls.

“We’re trying to render the building safe by using the excavator to knock down the walls that are unstable,” said Daniel V. Roy Jr., fire investigator for the Office of the State Fire Marshal.

He said the exact cause of the fire could not be determined, but he believed it to have started in the basement.

“Right now the basement is filled with paint and other hazardous materials,” he said. “We have to get with the DEP and get it pumped out before we can investigate.”

He estimated damage to property only to be about $250,000.

Chad Pendexter and Cousins said their apartment sustained smoke damage.

The owners were unavailable for comment on whether the business was insured and the value of the inventory, which included paints, wallpapers, flooring of all types. The business opened in 1972.

jsmedley@sunjournal

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