By Jodi Hausen,Staff Writer

NEW VINEYARD – A New Vineyard couple lost their home to fire Tuesday night, Fire Chief Doug Churchill said.

The call went out just before 7 p.m., and the first firefighters on the scene said the single-family home was engulfed in flames, Churchill said. The house on Devil Dog Lane, a long dirt road on the New Vineyard and Strong line, was a complete loss, he said. The home, which belonged to Shannon Bates and a companion, was insured, he said.

The house, deep in the woods, required a “rural water shuttle,” using at least seven tanker trucks from other area fire departments. Firefighters from New Vineyard, Farmington, Phillips, Strong and Kingfield knocked down the initial fire fairly quickly, but were on scene until about 11 p.m. mopping up and digging through coals, he said.

The chief and three other firefighters from New Vineyard were back at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday for about an hour putting out flare-ups, Churchill said.

A state fire marshal was unable to determine the cause of the fire Wednesday, according to Churchill, although it is not considered suspicious, he said.

Churchill was not at the scene until two hours after the initial call, he said Wednesday. He had been attending his son’s music concert at Mt. Blue Middle School, and had had his pager turned off. Deputy Fire Chief Doug Nile was in charge at the fire scene in the chief’s absence.

Although the chief had missed most of the action Tuesday night, he said that was OK.

“I have a good crew,” who did all the right things, he said.