PARIS – A dog is credited with waking three people Monday morning before a fire destroyed their home.

The house at 349 Hebron Road was destroyed by a blaze that was reported shortly before 5 a.m. The house’s inhabitants, Gary and Kathleen Bowden, and their teenage daughter Rebecca, all escaped, along with a pit bull-chow mix named Max.

Bill Knights Jr., the Bowdens’ son-in-law, said the fire started when a bucket of ashes cleaned from a wood stove sparked a fire on the rear porch. Knights said Max, who was in a kennel, woke Gary up after he started barking.

The family was taken to Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway for treatment of smoke inhalation. Kathleen also suffered an injured wrist after falling while leaving the house. A neighbor was caring for Max after the fire.

Firefighters from Paris, Norway, Oxford, Hebron, Buckfield, Otisfield and West Paris responded, along with the Paris Police Department, American Red Cross and Salvation Army. Hebron Road – Route 119 – was closed while firefighters worked, and traffic was detoured.

Chief Brad Frost of the Paris Fire Department said the house was about two-thirds in flames when he arrived.

“There wasn’t any going inside this one,” Frost said, referring to the burning building.

He said it took five hours to fight the fire, mostly due to hot spots. A backhoe was brought in to lift the steel roof off the rubble to put out flames.

Frost said firefighters focused on putting water on a neighboring two-story building with two apartments. The heat from the blaze melted much of the siding on the neighboring structure, and some windows were damaged, but Frost said the interior was not affected.

Knights said both structures were built by the Bowden family, and that the house started out 26 years ago as a single kitchen and bathroom. Knights said the house had expanded to include five to six bedrooms and three bathrooms.

“He still wasn’t done with it,” Knights said.

Frost advised homeowners to have smoke alarms in their homes and to change the batteries at least once a year.