MEXICO – A Maine National Guardsman, who returned from Iraq two months ago because of an injury, lost his home in a fire Tuesday. Neither Todd Glover, his wife, Terry, nor their three children were home at the time.

Mexico Fire Chief Gary Wentzell said the fire at 2 Third St. may have been caused by an electrical malfunction on a back wall in the cellar. The house, which was rendered uninhabitable by smoke and water damage, was insured, Terry Glover said.

Wentzell, who was the first firefighter on the scene, said he had just passed the home about 12:15 p.m. while heading home for lunch. He said shortly after he saw brown smoke coming from the chimney, his radio scanner intercepted a call from a 911 dispatcher in Paris, sending Mexico firefighters to the house.

Wentzell hurried back and immediately requested mutual aid from Rumford firefighters.

“When I got here, I didn’t know if there were people inside. Without mutual aid we would have been in trouble,” he said.

Wentzell said he sought mutual aid from Rumford because there are no on-call Mexico firefighters available during the daytime.

“Smoke was coming out of all the windows in the cellar. I kicked the cellar door open and tried to knock the fire down with foam,” said Wentzell, whose face was blackened with the smoke that quickly enveloped him at that time.

When firefighters arrived, teams were quickly assembled to search for victims believed to be inside. Others fought the blaze.

Later, Terry Glover said she and her husband had just left the house to help Todd’s father split wood. The couple’s three children – two girls and a boy, ages 6, 9 and 12 – were at school.

While teams of firefighters searched the house and others fought the fire, Terry Glover frantically ran up the road to Wentzell.

She said she told him that her two female pet ferrets, Moxie and Mojo, were trapped in the smokiest part of the house in their cage.

Wentzell, who said he didn’t believe the ferrets could have survived, radioed the information inside.

But, a few minutes later, Rumford firefighter Scott Holmes had located the ferrets and brought them out into the wind-driven rain.

Glover and a family friend quickly wrapped the animals inside jackets. She said the ferrets were then taken to a veterinarian to make sure they were all right.

The Glovers then watched while firefighters fought the fire, venting dense white, gray and black smoke from their home.

A thermal imaging camera was used to root out the fire, which had gotten into the floor, walls and ceiling. Wentzell said a bedroom and bathroom sustained the worst damage.

The fire was an added setback for the family. They had lived in the house six years.

Todd Glover, a member of the Maine National Guard’s 133rd Engineering Battalion in Norway, had suffered a shoulder injury while stationed in Iraq and returned to the United States in August for surgery after serving 15 months, his wife said.

Having lost most of their belongings, she didn’t know what they were going to do. But, she said, they would be staying with Todd’s parents, David and Laurie Glover of Mexico, in the interim.

Med-Care Ambulance and Mexico Patrolman Roy Hodsdon responded to the scene. Dixfield firefighters staffed the Rumford fire station, and Peru firefighters covered Mexico’s station, with some helping at the scene.