AUBURN – It was supposed to be fun. Instead, it grew a bit scary for a few minutes.

There were cold, tired people. Tight quarters. A surging crowd. Little if any security.

“People could have gotten trampled very easily,” said Jason Thompson, a Greenwood firefighter who was among hundreds of people waiting to get into Wal-Mart Friday morning.

There were two large lines. “Five minutes before the store opening, people pushed toward the doors,” Thompson said. “The crowd came forward. All these people came running out of their cars, cutting the lines.”

Thompson said some shoppers were “leaning on the doors trying to pull them open” before the store opened.

“There should have been a lot more order.” When the store opened, “it was crazy,” he said. People rushed in and grabbed carts, Thompson said. Crowd control was nearly nonexistent. “There was one police officer for 2,000 people.”

In Auburn, no one was hurt. That wasn’t the case in New York.

Jdimytai Damour, who was 34, died of asphyxiation after crowds trampled him while surging into a Wal-Mart in Valley Steam, N.Y., on the Friday following Thanksgiving. Damour was 6-foot-5 and weighed 270. He was placed at the entrance of the Long Island store because of his big frame.

At the Auburn store at 4:45 a.m. Friday, there was no line in front of the door – just a crowd wider than the bank of doors. People walked from their cars, cutting in front of others who had waited for hours.

There was no crowd control, no order, no barricades, as people waited outside in the cold to get in, Auburn police Chief Phil Crowell said. Last year Wal-Mart hired two off-duty police officers for security, but it did not this year, the chief said.

Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman said by e-mail that “we carefully consider the number and the quality of our security and crime prevention measures. We are working closely with law enforcement agencies in the communities we serve to ensure we can continue to provide a comfortable and safe shopping environment for both our customers and our associates.”

But Crowell said the lone officer who stopped did so to make sure no one in line had carts. He stopped because Wal-Mart “is on his beat,” Crowell said, not because the store had requested his presence.

Auburn officials will discuss whether the city needs an ordinance requiring stores to take crowd control precautions during mass gatherings before stores open, Crowell said. A mass gathering is defined as 500 people.

Between 1,000 to 1,500 were outside the Auburn store at the 5 a.m. opening, according to an officer and store workers at the scene.

Auburn stores don’t have a legal responsibility to provide crowd control, but they should take precautions to ensure patrons are safe, police said.

“When you have a plan that ensures order and people have to line up, people comply,” Crowell said. “When you don’t have that they can go ahead and cut.” An unsafe situation can escalate quickly, Crowell said. “When there’s disorder that feeds into chaos.”

Jessica Thistle of Auburn was also at the Wal-Mart for its Black Friday opening. She said she was about 20 people away from the door when the store opened.

She went with friends who wanted a 50-inch television for a discounted $800. The store had a limited number of the TVs. The televisions sold out by 5:20 a.m.

When the doors opened “it was like a rock concert,” Thistle said. People were pushing. She described it as a “mad dash. People were everywhere.” People grabbed carts, some put a cart in front of her trying to block her from getting to discounted products before they did. “I didn’t like it,” she said. “I don’t deal well with that.”

Someone could have been hurt, Thistle said. “If someone had fallen in line, people wouldn’t have stopped.”

Her group got the television. “It wasn’t worth it,” she said.

Not all shoppers shared that view, though.

Dennis Thibault of Mechanic Falls was first in line with his wife. “The crowd was industrial,” he said. A police car was there making sure no one had carts in line, Thibault said. Wal-Mart “did a good job opening,” and had enough people. “The employees did a good job,” he said.

Maine State Fire Marshal John Dean said his office has no laws about crowds trying to get into a building. “It’s the other side of the door we think about.”

Ditto for the State Police. Stores putting on door-buster promotions should be aware of safety when people are rushing to get in, said Maine Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland. “Especially in the Northeast and people want to get out of the cold.” McCausland said he reviewed video of what happened at the New York Wal-Mart. “It was a mob scene.”

Nassau County, N.Y., Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey estimated the Wal-Mart crowd there at 2,000 when the worker was killed and four other people were injured, The Associated Press reported. The store lacked adequate security to handle the crowd, Mulvey said.

“In fact, security was inside the store and not outside organizing, arranging and planning for this anticipated opening,” Mulvey said.

The lack of security, combined with the crowd and limited number of discounted televisions and other door buster deals “is a recipe for disaster,” Mulvey said. “And that’s what happened here.”

Auburn Chief Crowell said some stores take precaution to ensure safety. Some limit how many Black Friday shoppers can go in at one time. Others have staff outside talking to shoppers and making sure they’re staying in line. And some hand out vouchers so shoppers in line know they’re guaranteed the item and don’t have to rush. All of those steps would improve safety, Crowell said.