PERU – Thirty-one firefighters from three towns arrived within minutes Tuesday morning to fight a suspected structure fire on Main Street.
Only there wasn’t a fire. Someone in the single-family home at 114 Main St., near the old post office, had alertly flipped the switch on the fuse box, cutting electricity to the building and stopping a fire from starting.
Still, Peru Fire Chief Bill Hussey said he was grateful for the “excellent” mutual aid response from Rumford and Dixfield on a weekday.
Firefighters headed for the scene at 9:40 a.m. after a woman on the first floor reported seeing smoke going up a wall, said Peru Capt. Dean Milligan.
“Someone pulled the main fuses before we got there, which was a good thing,” he said.
Milligan said crews entered the building wearing breathing gear and carrying thermal imaging cameras, but failed to find smoke or hot spots in any part of the house.
“They have been having electrical problems that landlord Robert Crone is aware of, and has an action plan for,” he said.
Crone’s plan, Milligan said, is to put the woman and her three children in a hotel while he has an electrician rewire the place. Hussey is to then follow through, ensuring that the work is done, before the displaced family returns.
Firefighters last responded to the house when it burned in either the 1930s or 1940s, Hussey said.
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