MECHANIC FALLS – When firefighters began cutting into the roof of Jennie Friree’s home early Thursday to vent the growing blaze, she watched with a firefighter’s eyes.

“I know that’s what they have to do,” said Friree, a volunteer firefighter and EMT with the Mechanic Falls Fire Department for two years. But the destruction – sawing and chopping holes in the home she and her husband, Eric, bought a year ago – frightened her.

“That scared me,” she said. “It felt surreal.”

Shortly after 3 a.m., Friree woke to the sound of a distant smoke detector. Eric, a trucker, was working. Jennie had fallen asleep at the TV with her children, Sean, 10, and Emmerson, 5.

“I got up and I could see the laundry room glowing with fire,” she said. She roused the kids. On the way out the door, Sean rescued her pocketbook with her cell phone and car keys. “I wasn’t able to get back inside.”

When firefighters arrived, the century-old home at 17 Park St. was engulfed with flames on three sides, fire Chief Fred Sturtevant said.

“Luckily, we had plenty of people on hand,” Sturtevant said. Departments from Oxford, Poland, Minot and Hebron helped put the fire out.

Jennie Friree knew every one of the firefighters.

“I have been to a couple of house fires,” she said. “But that was as an EMT, not a firefighter. All I had to do was watch.” She joined the department about two years ago. Eric joined later, though his work schedule often gets in the way of training.

Though they got out safely, the family lost virtually everything inside: from the family furniture Jennie inherited from her grandparents to the children’s toys and their baby pictures. Two cats also perished in the fire.

By Thursday afternoon, the small cape was encircled with caution tape. Charred windows were busted out. Charred furniture sat on the lawn.

Jennie Friree said she had been besieged with offers of help from the community.

“I just want people to know how grateful we are to the community,” she said. For now, the family is staying at the home of another firefighter.

Members of the department planned to gather late Thursday to discuss holding a fundraiser for the family.

“We just want to lend a hand,” Sturtevant said.