NEWRY – A late morning fire inside a three-story Sunday River Ski Resort condominium unit caused thousands of dollars in damage, according to fire officials. There were no injuries.

Two adjacent condo units suffered smoke damage.

The unit that burned is H1 at 55 Easy St. in the South Ridge Townhouses complex. It’s one of six condo units in one building off Broadway Drive.

The $252,000 unit, which is insured and owned by Janet Przygoda of East Greenwich, R.I., was unoccupied when fire broke out in either the kitchen or living room area, town and fire officials said.

Two fire investigators from the Office of the Maine Fire Marshal were sent up from the Paris warehouse fire scene to examine the condo’s blackened interior by early afternoon to try to determine a cause.

Assistant fire Chief Bruce Pierce credited carpenter Scott Dutcher of Gilead for spotting the heavily smoking fire at about 10:30 a.m. and alerting emergency responders.

Otherwise, no one would have known before it was too late, because the condo unit, built in the late 1980s, didn’t have hardwired smoke detectors linked to the Oxford County Regional Dispatch Center in Paris as do more modern area buildings. It was also too old to have a sprinkler system.

Dutcher, who had arrived to work on a nearby condo unit, said he didn’t notice anything unusual in his first trip down from his truck. However, when he brought more tools down on a second trip, that’s when he saw smoke escaping from rear eaves and windows.

“A few minutes later, heavy smoke began pouring out and the building had a very hot door knob,” Dutcher said.

He contacted another worker, who called 911.

Newry business owner and planner Pat Roma, who with Punky Davis manages the condos, said he was also nearby when the fire was discovered. He also called for emergency responders, then ran up to shut off propane to the building, fearing an explosion similar to one last winter that obliterated a Bethel condominium building.

Bethel firefighters were the first from six town departments to arrive because Newry firefighters were helping to extinguish the Paris warehouse fire and manning the West Paris fire station, Pierce said.

Lone Newry firefighter Brad Wight, who was inside the Newry town office when the alarm sounded, drove the department’s remaining firetruck from the Bear River station to the scene, arriving with Bethel.

They knocked the fire down within 25 minutes.

The timely response and firewalls separating each condo unit were credited with preventing the blaze from spreading, Pierce said.

“Bethel put the fire out. They saved our butts again. Fortunately, nobody was home,” he said.

Other responders included Med-Care Ambulance and Andover, Gilead, Greenwood, and Woodstock firefighters.

Copy the Story Link