DEXTER — One cabin and two other outlying buildings on Charleston Road burned to the ground during an early Sunday morning blaze that fire investigators consider suspicious, according to Dexter fire Capt. Mike McCormick.

“It is considered a crime scene,” McCormick said.

The fire at 515 Charleston Road was reported by a neighbor at 2:02 a.m. McCormick was the first firefighter to arrive. He got there shortly after Dexter police officers and found the one-lane driveway to the property, located about 500 yards from the road, blocked by a cable and a camper.

The cabin was located about 100 yards from the other buildings, according to the fire captain, who described its residents as “transients.”

“It’s suspicious. We can’t tell where it started. It’s an unknown origin,” McCormick said. “There were four buildings and two greenhouses, and three of the four buildings were on fire and they’re not connected.

“Nothing made sense,” he said, explaining why the decision was made to call the state fire marshal’s office. Two fire investigators responded to the scene, McCormick said.

“It’s gone,” the fire captain said, describing the fire-ravaged cluster of buildings.

The person who owns the property was not available Sunday.

No one was injured in the fire, which took hours to fully extinguish. Firefighters returned to their station shortly after 6 a.m. Crews from Dover-Foxcroft, Sangerville, Corinna, Garland and St. Albans assisted local firefighters in battling the blaze.

Fire Chief Matt Connor, who attended a conference for fire chiefs in Wilton, was given an update Sunday morning about the fire by McCormick.

“There were several resources on scene: the fire marshal and (Maine) Forest Service,” Connor said.

McCormick said the Maine Forest Service was called because of fears dry conditions might allow the fire to spread.

“It was such a big fire,” he said.

Copy the Story Link