In New Gloucester, fire officials say a man trying to thaw frozen pipes caused a fire that destroyed a camp on Sabbathday Lake on Friday.
In Woodstock, officials said a problem with a wood stove is the likely cause of a blaze that tore through a mobile home on Curtis Hill Road.
Trees toppled in gusts of wind, pipes froze and car batteries went dead in subzero temperatures.
It’s not that Maine is a stranger to such frigid weather, it’s just that it doesn’t usually happen before Christmas.
“It is unusual to have these kind of temperatures this early in the season,” meteorologist Margaret Curtis of the National Weather Service in Gray said. “More often it happens in late January or early February.”
What kind of temperatures? How about 9 degrees below zero in Augusta, the coldest it’s been there at this time of year since 1951?
Portland also saw a record broken — its high temperature of 9 degrees on Friday was the lowest high recorded since 1951.
It was cold. Real cold. When wind chills are factored in, the numbers become staggering. The wind chill temperature in Lewiston, for instance, was minus 23 degrees before it was even dark. Winds averaged about 14 mph with gusts up to 41 mph in some area, weather officials said.
That’s dangerously cold in a variety of ways.
In New Gloucester, fire crews from several towns spent hours fighting the blaze at 14 Golden Way. It was believed the fire began after camp owner Paul Pinette attempted to thaw frozen pipes beneath the building.
“The fire was difficult to battle,” New Gloucester Fire Capt. Scott Doyle said. “It started under the home, due to pipes being thawed, and it spread to the first floor through all walls. Most of the walls had to be cut open to gain access to the fire. It traveled in difficult places that took us time to access.”
In addition to the flames, crews battled high winds coming off the lake and subzero temperatures that turned water to ice on contact.
No one was hurt in the blaze. New Gloucester fire crews were assisted by departments from Gray, Poland, Raymond, Durham, Pownal, North Yarmouth, Auburn and Windham.
Temperatures were expected to rise overnight, with snow and a mixed bag of precipitation to begin Saturday morning.
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