BROWNFIELD – A chicken coop and part of an antique farmhouse burned Wednesday afternoon, but firefighters saved the main part of the home and several chickens survived the blaze.
The fire at the Old County Road home of Charlotte O’Boyle was believed to have been started by spontaneous combustion in a pile of hay, fire officials said.
When Brownfield firefighters arrived, the chicken coop and an ell of the Federal farmhouse was fully engulfed in flames, said Assistant Fire Chief Mike Hatch.
Flames had also spread into the back of the main part of the house.
Nobody was hurt in the fire, but two cats perished in the blaze, which brought fire crews from Brownfield and three other towns.
Hatch said O’Boyle’s son reported the fire about 3:15 p.m., saying the chicken coop was on fire at the home on the edge of town.
“It was probably as far from the Fire Department as you can get,” Hatch said.
Responding crews had to drive their trucks down a mile-long dirt road mostly covered in mud, Hatch said.
Still, crews stopped the flames at the back of the farmhouse, sparing the main section of the home from extensive damage.
“The house itself is in remarkable shape considering all that we were up against,” Hatch said. “It was quite a save. These guys amaze me.”
Brownfield fire investigators determined that the fire started in hay kept in the chicken coop, a finding tentatively agreed upon by the State Fire Marshal’s Office.
Hatch said O’Boyle kept only a few chickens in the coop, and that the birds escaped the building when flames began to spread.
“They were sitting on the front steps when we left,” Hatch said.
A third cat also escaped the burning building while the other two perished.
The exact amount of damage caused by the fire was not immediately known.
Brownfield fire crews were assisted by firefighters from Hiram, Denmark and Fryeburg.
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