NORWAY – Selectman Robert “Bobby” Walker said he listened on his Fire Department radio early Tuesday morning as his Country Club Road ranch and more than $50,000 of NASCAR racing memorabilia was consumed by fire.

“The first thing I heard was the roof was caving in,” Walker said.

It was 4 a.m., and he was in his room at the Norway Rehabilitation and Living Center listening and crying, he said there Wednesday. Walker, 61, has been residing at the center since suffering a massive stroke – his sixth – two months earlier.

The house he shared with his wife, Mary Walker, has been empty since she left him just after the stroke and moved back to New York, Walker said.

Only days before the fire, he filed for divorce from Mary, who had been his wife for five years. He said he doesn’t believe the events are related.

Walker, also a volunteer firefighter since 1967, said the home, which state investigators are saying was destroyed by an arsonist, was insured, but its contents were not.

Richard Shepard, an investigator with the Maine Fire Marshal’s Office, said Wednesday that the investigation is ongoing, and the public was still being encouraged to come forward with any information that may lead to an arrest.

Shepard said he would continue to interview people in the Oxford Hills area today. Debris from the fire had been sent to the state’s crime lab for testing, but so far no suspect has been identified, Shepard said.

Walker, a longtime but now retired Oxford Plains Speedway racing announcer, said he had planned on giving the collection of NASCAR memorabilia to his grandson.

“Half of the living room was all bookcases” filled with his NASCAR collection of die cast miniature cars and trading cards, Walker said. Dale Earnhardt Sr. was his favorite race car driver, he said.

“It’s priceless,” he said, but estimated the value at $50,000.

When he was told by investigators the fire was believed to be arson, “My world ended,” he said.

For the past two days he’s wrestled with the questions of who would do such a thing, and why.

“It’s destroyed my life. Thank God I’ve got friends and family to prop me up,” Walker said. “Everything that connected my family to me is gone.”

Also lost were family photos, including some of his little sister, who died when she was 4. Photos of his parents were also destroyed.

Fire Chief Mike Mann said Wednesday that nothing was salvaged from the house and the scene had been turned over to the state investigators.

“My whole life is gone,” Walker said. “Everything is gone. What am I going to do now? Somebody threw my life away. What did I do to deserve this?”

But Walker, who has served for at least nine years in town government, said he was holding up and that he planned to seek another term on the Board of Selectmen. His current term expires in June.

“I’ve got to have something to do,” he said.

Almost as hard as dealing with the fire was dealing with the outpouring of community support and concern, he said.

He’s been independent all his life, and there’s been no end to the calls and visits from friends and family offering support, he said.

The most recent stroke left him totally paralyzed on his left side. He is unable to walk, and has use of only his right hand.

“I was making progress until yesterday,” he said.

A power wheelchair that had been purchased for him with money from an OPS fundraiser was in the living room and destroyed in the blaze, he said.

Even with only one hand Walker said he wished he could have a few moments alone with whoever burned his home down.

“Give me a club and put him in the same room as me,” Walker said. “He killed me and why should I do any different to him?”

Staff Writer M. Dirk Langeveld and Regional Editor Scott Thistle contributed to this report.