About 50 firefighters from six towns battled the blaze that consumed the house.
OTISFIELD – A woman and her two sons lost their home and possessions Sunday morning when a fire razed their single-family home at #79 Oak Hill Road.
Kim Brannon and Todd, her 3-month-old son, were not hurt, according to Otisfield Fire Chief Garry Dyer. He said they were taken in by neighbors. Brannon’s 7-year-old son, Devan, was not home at the time of the fire.
About 50 firefighters from six towns battled the cold weather and difficulty in obtaining water to control and contain the blaze within two hours.
“I can’t express how fantastic the mutual aid was; how all teams pulled together and worked together,” Dyer said. “We worked under extreme conditions. All the essentials were not right there.”
Dyer said tankers filled up from a dry hydrant at Smith Brook. He said a dry hydrant is a pipe that runs into a body of water that is capped and can be used by firefighters to suck out water.
“It saves the time of chopping a hole into the ice and reduces the time factor of getting water,” Dyer said.
Tankers then had to drive 1.5 miles to dump water into a holding tank near the scene. The water in the holding tank was then pumped to fire engines at the scene.
He also said it was impossible to move a lot of equipment around because the road in this rural part of Otisfield was too narrow to turn around.
“The fire was under control within about two hours, but we didn’t leave until 9:30 a.m.,” Dyer said. “It just kept popping back up again.
“We wanted to make sure we saved the barn/garage combination,” he said.
Dyer said Brannon discovered smoke in the house, called 911 at about 12:45 a.m. and got herself and her baby out. He said the call came in as a chimney fire, but when firefighters arrived smoke was coming out of the peaks of each end of house and coming out the eaves.
Dyer said the building is still standing and that the fire was contained inside it.
“The fire had such a head start on us that we did real good to be able to stop it where we did,” Dyer said. “There were no injuries, no loss of life.”
Dyer said the Salvation Army disaster wagon from Portland was there providing hot beverages and food and for firefighters, and the Red Cross was there.
“All the beautiful people were there, showing up when you need them,” Dyer said. “The Otisfield Highway Department was there sanding the road to make sure nobody slipped and was hurt. It took a team effort.”
Mutual aid was received from Oxford, Casco, Harrison, Norway, Naples and Pace Ambulance.
Dyer said the State Fire Marshal’s Office would investigate the scene on Tuesday.
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