Early morning fire damages Bath apartments, displacing four

Firefighters battled a blaze in Bath early Monday morning that displaced four people. Darcie Moore / The Times Record

BATH — Fire severely damaged a Rose Street home on Monday morning, displacing four residents, according to fire officials.

A resident getting ready for work reported the fire after she noticed smoke while she was getting ready for work around 5:30 a.m.

Julie Rideout has lived in one of the upstairs apartments for three years. She had started her car and went back into the apartment to get some more things. When she went into the kitchen, she smelled wood burning. She opened a lower cabinet and smoke billowed out.

Four people escaped an apartment building fire in Bath early Monday morning after a resident getting ready for work discovered smoke. Photo courtesy of Eric Wilson

“I just started yelling ‘Fire! Fire!'” she said.

She stomped on the floor and ran downstairs to wake up her first-floor neighbor.

Rideout said four people live in the building. A couple dogs made it out safely as well. She believes the fire may have started a first-story porch behind the building.

“It felt like it took forever for (firefighters) to get everything set up and spraying,” Rideout said, still wrapped in a pink blanket as she watched firefighters fight the blaze.

“I am just so grateful that I was awake,” she said.

The neighbors have been amazing she said, bringing blankets, warm clothes and getting coffee for firefighters.

“Everybody was in bed except me,” she said. “Thank God I had to work early.”

Bath Fire Chief Lawrence Renaud said the rear of the building suffered the most damage. The state fire marshals office will help Bath Fire Department investigate the cause of the fire.

Renaud said that firefighters had evacuate the third floor of the house at one point because the flames became too intense. By 7 a.m. firefighters had the flames extinguished.

The American Red Cross has been called to help the people displaced by the fire.

This story will be updated.