RUMFORD — The State Fire Marshal’s Office investigated 206 Cumberland St. Monday, where a blaze engulfed a three-story apartment building Saturday afternoon.
By mid-afternoon Monday, Fire Chief Bob Chase said he was still waiting for a report on the cause of the fire.
He said he had heard a report the fire might have originated from a stove on the second floor, but said that report could not be confirmed.
“The Fire Marshal is down there right now,” he said.
When the investigation is completed, Chase said he will contact owner Peter Robichaud about having the building demolished as soon as possible.
“Unlike some recent fires we’ve had with buildings that sustained damage, this one is significantly compromised and runs a real risk of collapse,” he said. “We really need to push hard in the days to come to get it knocked down.”
He said there’s one wall where the roof is gone, and the third story is gone, as well as part of the second story.
“So there’s no support laterally for that wall at all,” Chase said. “We want to mitigate that risk as soon as we can.”
Saturday’s 911 call came in at 12:26 p.m. with a report of flames shooting out of one of the building’s second-story windows.
Police Chief Stacy Carter said Monday that Rumford police officer Matthews Desroches and Sgt. James Bernard responded. Desroches was first on the scene and he and a citizen, Walter Fish Jr., notified tenants and evacuated the building.
Fish was visiting a resident on the first floor of the building when he heard the smoke alarms go off.
“People were screaming, ‘Fire!'” Fish said. “I ran to get out kids and cats. I banged on the door where one guy was asleep. He didn’t want to get up but I grabbed him and said, ‘We’ve got to get out.'”
By that time, the smoke had become too thick and Fish had to vacate the building.
Chase asked for resources from 10 departments. There were 20 firefighters from Rumford and another 25 firefighters from surrounding towns.
“The volume of fire when we got there was just so big,” he said. “That was a hell of a job by everyone involved. A lot of resources.”
Chase said a vacant apartment building at 125 Rumford Ave., less than six feet away, received “limited damage” to the roof.
Firefighters were focused on the building at 206 Cumberland St., then saw smoke coming from the roof of 125 Rumford Ave.
“We put a bunch of crews in there in a hurry and pulled the ceilings all the way across the third floor down so that we had full access to that attic and stopped it there,” he said.
Chase said the building at 125 Rumford Ave. does not have much value, but “if that had gotten going, we would have had to reach far and wide for enough resources to stop them both.”
Firefighters fought the blaze until 8 p.m., but had crews there on a fire watch all night long.
“Just the way it collapsed and pancaked, it created a bunch of voids in there that we couldn’t get water to,” he said. “And the building was compromised enough that we didn’t want to put anybody inside. We deployed hose lines and just chased hot spots all night.”
On Sunday morning, the ladder truck went back down and they were there until 3 p.m.
Residents were put in direct contact with the Red Cross, which indicated that they assisted 22 people. The building had working smoke alarms, but no sprinkler system. There were no injuries reported.
The Board of Selectmen will have a discussion and vote on possible action on the two buildings affected by the fire at its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.