SABATTUS – Firefighters working around an electrified fence Friday morning saved a pair of trailers as a garage between them burned. No one was hurt.
Fire Chief Don Therrien said a spark from a car battery ignited a pool of gas and caused the garage on Mad Bulldog Road to go up in flames.
Bill Lee, who uses the trailer for storage, was working on a car inside the garage at about 10:30 a.m. when the fire started.
He tried to fight the flames himself before it spread out of control.
“He put one extinguisher on it, but it got to be too much for him,” Therrien said. “He was overcome by smoke and he got out of there.”
When fire crews arrived, flames were shooting from the garage to the trailers on either side.
Complicating the firefighting efforts was an electrical wire that fell on a metal fence, causing the fence to become electrically charged.
“We had to tiptoe around that at first and then we regrouped,” Therrien said.
Flames singed trailers on both sides as firefighters battled the flames.
The trailer to the right was slightly damaged by heat, while a small section of the one on the left caught fire.
“Both trailers sustained damage, and the garage was a total loss, as well as the vehicle inside,” Therrien said. “But we saved the contents inside the trailers. The guys made a hell of a stop. They did a great job.”
Sabattus crews were assisted by firefighters from Lisbon, Lewiston and Wales.
Therrien and his crew remained at the scene into the early afternoon, snuffing out hot spots and searching for the cause.
Mad Bulldog Road is off King Road, which is off Route 9.
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