By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

TURNER – A couple and their two children fled their home Monday afternoon as fire roared through a barn 10 feet from the back of their house at routes 4 and 117.

With the help of a couple who stopped to warn Matthew and Briana Powell, the family ran to safety with a pet cat and dog just as a vehicle exploded inside the burning barn behind them.

Pam and Ken Morris were driving on Route 4 at about 3 p.m. when they spotted smoke coming from under the eaves of the building.

While Pam Morris ran into the Town Office to report the fire, her husband ran to the house across the street to alert the people there that their building was burning.

“Just as Kenny was coming out with one of the kids, something exploded in the barn behind them,” Pam Morris said. “It was very scary.”

By then, the barn was entirely in flames that were sweeping toward the house just a few feet away, witnesses said.

“It was totally engulfed when I looked over there,” said Carol White-St. Pierre, who works at the Town Office. “You could hear small explosions as it burned.”

The Powells live in the house at 8 Turner Center Road. It was believed their young children were asleep when the fire started. Turner Fire Chief Steve Fish said a wood stove was the likely cause of the blaze, though it remained under investigation late Monday night.

Firefighters responded from several towns and began attacking the fire, trying to keep the flames from sweeping toward the house. At one point, the back of the Powells’ house caught fire, but fire crews quickly put it out and began focusing their attention again on the barn.

“It was completely engulfed. You could see the timbers burning in the blaze,” said Eva Leavitt, who also works at the town office. “It was unbelievable.”

Minutes later, the intersection around the town office was clogged with firetrucks and crews. Joyce Moulin said she heard several small explosions and then saw a man coming out of the house with a dog in his arms.

The barn was destroyed in the fire as was at least one vehicle inside. Fish said Matthew Powell had been working on the car when he left for 10 minutes to go to a hardware store. It was shortly after he got back that the barn was burning.

“When we first got there, it was rolling,” Fish said. “The guys saw that the barn was gone so their priority had to be to save that house and save it they did. It was one hell of a save.”

Turner fire crews were assisted by others from Auburn, Leeds, Buckfield, Greene and Livermore.

Town employees and others at the office building credited Pam and Ken Morris with reporting the fire and then staying to help out.

According to Pam Morris, it had been a rough Monday to begin with. She and her husband had been driving down Route 4 at the time of the fire because their furnace had broken down and they needed a new part.

In the end, she was glad they had been there to lend a hand.

“We’re not heroes, by any means,” Pam Morris said. “You just want to do whatever you can to help. It’s definitely scary when something like that happens.”

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