PERU – A Peru man who lost his Route 108 home to fire last week had another loss early Thursday night.

Jason Holman, 24, who was driving his parents’ red 1990s Dodge Avenger, hit black ice shortly before 6 p.m. about a mile off Route 108 on Dickvale Road, according to Maine State Police Trooper Greg Tirado.

The south-bound car slid across and off the opposite lane, sideswiped a utility pole, shattering it about seven feet up, and came to rest tilted down an embankment several feet away. Holman was uninjured, Tirado said.

A guy wire appeared to be the only thing holding the broken pole from collapsing into the road.

“He’s lucky the pole didn’t fall on him and kill him,” Tirado said.

Holman, who was distraught, declined comment.

Peru firefighters directed traffic and removed debris from the road. Tirado said he wouldn’t be able to determine a damage estimate until the car could be pulled onto the road.

Light rain falling at the time froze when temperatures fell, causing several accidents across the region, Tirado said.

A state police dispatcher in Gray said it was the third accident of the night involving cars sliding into utility poles, “but people have been really lucky to escape serious injury.”

She said the majority of accidents related to black ice were happening in the Raymond to Windham area early Thursday evening.

An Oxford County police dispatcher said icy roads caused several accidents but nothing major as of 8 p.m.

On Nov. 20, Holman’s house at 1080 Auburn Road, also called Route 108, sustained damage of at least $50,000 due to creosote buildup in a single-brick chimney that had cracked and spread fire into a double floor upstairs, according to Peru fire Chief Bill Hussey.

Holman’s parents, who live in Dixfield, were injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident at night on the Fourth of July in Dixfield.

Holman’s mother, Paula Holman, was further injured while being taken to a Lewiston hospital by Med-Care Ambulance early in the morning on July 5 when a pickup truck driven by a Turner man collided with the ambulance.

The collision killed Med-Care paramedic Allan Parsons, 46, of Wilton, who was in the back of the ambulance tending to Paula Holman, and seriously injured ambulance driver Arlene Greenleaf of Bethel.