CANTON – There was a standing-room-only crowd in the old Canton municipal building as auctioneer Adrian Harris sold five houses in 15 minutes.

The houses are located in the flood plain and are part of the buyout program designed to relocate people to higher ground. The new owners have 30 days to salvage whatever they want from the houses. The town will then clean up the property and return it to its natural state by the end of the year.

The prospective bidders had various reasons for wanting to bid on the homes.

Vicki Schmidt and Rob Dixon were there on behalf of the Frandford Mutual Aid Fire Training Association. The group arranges training exercises for fire departments in Franklin, Androscoggin and Oxford counties. It seeks to get a building, or permission to use one after the owner had salvaged what he wanted, to use for fire department training. Dixon indicated that valuable training can be done in an old building without burning it.

Mexico resident Dan Couch and his daughter Nichole were hoping to buy a structure and salvage material to build a garage. Couch said the building he had his eye on went for so much that he would be better off buying new material.

James Gilbert of Farmington had visions of salvaging material from an old farmhouse and barn, but it went to another bidder. Gilbert said there would be a good market out of state for the barn, which he would have marked for reassembly.

There were some old hand-finished “pumpkin pine” floors with boards 2 feet wide, and interesting architectural features such as a nice staircase. He said he admired the craftsmanship that went into these old houses and the skill it took to make the hand hewn beams and intricate joints.

Properties that sold and the amounts were: 54 Pleasant St., $1,850; 83 Pleasant St., $700; 56 School St., $750; 123 School St., $1,750; and 224 School St., $800.

Harris, who conducts about an auction per week, kept the level of excitement up and the pace of bidding swift.

On Dec. 2 he is conducting the auction of surplus state property such as old patrol cars, game warden trucks and Department of Transportation equipment. He said he particularly enjoyed auctioning off property like ATVs and snowmobiles confiscated by the state from “dead beat” dads to cover their back child support.