LEBANON, Maine — A two-alarm fire destroyed a home and an adjoining barn at 123 North Rochester Road Saturday morning.

No people were injured, though the homeowner said he was lucky to still be alive. He added that two horses were safe, though a cat may have died.

Benjamin Rousseau, who lived in the Civil War-era, cape-style home with his ex-wife, Nancy Blagdon, said he’d moved several vehicles out of his driveway Saturday morning so he could use a tractor to clear snow. While trying to get as close to the barn as he could, Rousseau said he hit one of his two propane tanks with the tractor.

“Gas was shooting out of it,” Rousseau said. “I shut the valve off to the propane tank that was leaking. But I didn’t shut off the valve to the other one.”
Rousseau said he could see flames coming from the side of his house and tried to put them out with snow, but it didn’t help.

“I got the hell out of there,” Rosseau said.

It was immediately thereafter the flames got bigger and singed his beard. He said he believes the fire originated from the hot water propane tank he kept in his cellar and spread from there.

Lebanon Fire Chief Skip Wood said the first crews responded to the scene at around 10:30 a.m. The heat from the flames was so intense he couldn’t even walk onto the driveway upon arrival, he said.

Fire Capt. Dan Roy said the biggest problem firefighters had was getting water to the scene. Rousseau’s home is in a rural section of Lebanon and most roads around it are narrow.

“We had two trucks here right away, and we ran out of water very quickly,” Roy said. “We had to get other tankers here … Once they arrived we were well into the operation. We had no problems after that, but at first we had big problems.”
Rousseau said he’s lived in the house since 1969. His ex-wife and daughter kept two horses at the farm, and both were safe Saturday.

Rousseau said he was hopeful some items in his basement could be salvaged, but believed almost everything else in the one-and-a-half story home was lost.

Blagdon said she lost all her antiques in the barn, while Rousseau said his tools, a table saw and moose antlers and meat from a hunt last year were lost.
“That’s all right, though. I’m still alive,” he said.

Rousseau said he and Blagdon would have a place to stay Saturday night and were receiving help from the American Red Cross.

A Milton, N.H., truck with a 106-feet-long ladder was used to spray water directly down on the still-flaming rubble of the barn and home at almost 2 p.m. Saturday. An excavator was pulling away the remnants of the buildings, which Rousseau said were connected by a shed, which also burned down.

Lebanon Fire was joined at the scene by Lebanon Rescue and fire companies from Acton, Alfred, Berwick, North Berwick, South Berwick and Sanford as well as Milton and Rochester, N.H.

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