ALBION (AP) – Maine fire marshals are investigating the third barn fire within four days in this central Maine town. Only one of them has been declared to be an act of arson, but residents were on edge nonetheless.

Paul and Joanne Westin considered themselves lucky to have escaped without injury when a fire swept through their barn early Thursday.

Joann Westin was awaken by a noise around 1:30 a.m. The smoke alarms had not yet sounded, and she initially believed the noise to be rain on the metal roof. “Then I smelled smoke and instantly I knew,” she said.

Firefighters from Albion and surrounding communities were able to keep the fire from spreading to the house. The barn was leveled and a shed that attached the barn to the house was destroyed. The house sustained smoke and water damage.

Fire marshal investigators have not determined the cause of the fire, but a fire Tuesday night at another barn was declared to be an act of arson. A third fire destroyed a barn and 4,000 bales of hay Monday night little more than a mile away.

The state fire marshal’s office is not saying whether the three cases are connected, but firefighters have their suspicions. The town normally sees about one fire a year.

“At this point, three in the same town, in a row, anybody would look at this and say, ‘There’s something going on,”‘ said Daniel Young, investigator with the fire marshal’s office. “We’re trying to figure out if there is.”

Frank and Diane Duda said the fire at their barn Monday night was not considered suspicious and was not investigated by the fire marshal’s office.

Investigators believe the fire was the result of hay spontaneously combusting, but the Dudas now say they’re certain that their barn fire was set intentionally.

“We’re meticulous with the hay,” Diane Duda said. “We didn’t think in a million years anyone set that intentionally. Now it’s totally different.”

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Information from: Morning Sentinel, http://www.onlinesentinel.com/

AP-ES-10-06-06 1232EDT