LEWISTON — Fire devastated a six-family apartment building on Pierce Street Friday and early reports indicated one person may have suffered minor injuries from smoke inhalation.


Terry Powell, who had been visiting her mother across the street, said she ran into the building as soon as she heard a siren and saw smoke.
She said she helped rescue a mother and three children in a third-floor apartment. When the stairwell became blocked with smoke, the group escaped out a second-floor window onto a porch roof.


I flung myself out the window and caught a breath of air, (and thought) Yes! Im going to make it, Powell said.


Two men helped the group off that roof with a short ladder.


A hundred people gathered to watch crews of firefighters from Auburn and Lewiston. Heavy smoke rolled off the building. At times it was so dense the building itself seemed to disappear.


Red Cross and Salvation Army help were both at the scene. The building at 136 Pierce St. was built in 1913 and owned by an Old Orchard Beach man, according to city records.