LIVERMORE FALLS — Nineteen residents of the Bank Building were forced from their apartments Thursday night after an oven fire filled the upper floors with smoke, fire Chief Gerry Pineau said.
There were no injuries.
Firefighters from several towns responded to the four-story building at 38 Main St., which contains a mix of businesses, including Androscoggin Bank, and apartments.
Pineau said the fire alarm sounded at 7:23 p.m. and the report was that people were leaving the building but some were trapped.
Sixty firefighters from several towns rushed to the scene to find the upper floors filled with smoke.
Pineau said that when he arrived there was smoke on the third and fourth floors, where most apartments are located, and people were leaving the building. Firefighters helped carry out two of the residents using stair chairs, he said.
Most of the residents are elderly, he said.
Jay and Livermore Falls ladder trucks were set up on two sides of the building. Farmington’s tower truck arrived but was sent back before it could be set up. NorthStar Emergency Medical Services and Turner Rescue each had two ambulances at the scene.
The lights of flashlights could be seen on the walls and ceilings in the back of the building as firefighters checked out the building. Pineau said the biggest problem was searching for people through the smoke.
Spruce Mountain High School Principal Gilbert “Specs” Eaton, who lives on the fourth floor, said that when the smoke alarms went off he checked all the apartments to make sure people were getting out.
“I’ve checked everything. I’ve been on the roof, the fourth floor, the third, second, first and in the basement,” he said.
Pineau said an oven in one of the fourth-floor apartments had been set on the self-clean cycle but there was food left in it, which triggered the smoke alarms.
Residents of the building watched from the parking lot, many of them sitting in vehicles. All of them were able to return to their apartments at 8:45 p.m. after firefighters vented the building, Pineau said.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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- Ladder trucks from Livermore Falls and Jay are set up at the Bank Building on Main Street in Livermore Falls on Thursday night as firefighters from several towns check out a smoke in the building.
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