WOODSTOCK – For the third time in two years, Roy and Linda Buck lost their home to fire Friday. There were no injuries.

The blaze started in a corner of the basement of the single-family modular home at 122 North Main St. and was ruled accidental, fire Chief Geff Inman said. The Office of the State Fire Marshal is investigating, he said.

When firefighters arrived, the chief said, black smoke from the basement was so thick they couldn’t see each other.

“It was intense heat,” he added.

Firefighters from Bethel, Greenwood and West Paris assisted Woodstock, along with Tri-Town Rescue of West Paris at the 1:54 p.m. call.

Firefighting equipment was set up in the middle of Route 26 beside the one-story house across from the ball field north of Bryant Pond Village. Traffic was rerouted for more than an hour onto Route 232 and Gore Road.

The house sustained heavy smoke and fire damage inside, forcing the Bucks to stay with family members, Inman said.

It was not known if anyone was in the home at the time the fire erupted, or if the Bucks had fire insurance. The family declined to be interviewed.

The blaze was the third in 26 months for the Bucks. They lost a home at the same location on Oct. 28, 2004, displacing them, their daughter, a granddaughter and a family friend. According to then State Fire Marshal investigator Daniel V. Roy, the cause was accidental and traced to remnants of a phone charger device in a second-floor bedroom.

The family then rented a 1970s mobile home on land owned by Roy Buck’s sister, Sheila Bentley, who lived across Route 2 in Bethel. It was gutted by fire of undetermined cause on Jan. 17, 2005. The Bucks again lost everything, including the family cat.

Copy the Story Link