PERU — Thanks to a number of things going right, firefighters Sunday were able to limit the fire damage to an 1820 farmhouse, according to Fire Chief Bill Hussey.
“It was a fantastic save last night,” the chief said Monday, although a 12-year-old dog, Ray Ray, died of smoke inhalation.
Hussey said Mike and Louanne Thibodeau were not at their 333 Greenwoods Road home when a passing motorist saw smoke coming out of a second-story window and called 911 at 5:27 p.m.
At the time of the call, Hussey and other firefighters were still at a 1:47 p.m. crash 2 miles miles away at 1210 Auburn Road, where a vehicle struck and broke a pole. Power lines, a phone line and cable lines fell across the road.
Hussey, who was stuck on the Canton side of the lines, could not get through to the fire call.
But other Peru firefighters at the accident made it to the fire scene within five minutes. Normal response would be from the Peru Fire Department on Main Street, which is six miles away.
Central Maine Power had cut the power to the area because of the accident.
“Two guys went in. It was in the kitchen area, near the refrigerator,” Hussey said.
“The crew came in and did a great job knocking it down. It burned the wall and went into the bedroom above it, and they had to tear that out. At one point, there was fire coming out of a bedroom window upstairs.”
Hussey said the kitchen is in an ell, not in the main house, but connected to an opening going into the dining room. The fire was on the west wall, away from the living area.
He noted that Mike Thibodeau had made a lot of interior improvements, including using a lot of sheetrock near the fire area of the kitchen, which really helped limit the fire.
“The door to the upstairs was closed, so only the smoke went up, until the guys went up and knocked it down. So it really saved a lot upstairs,” Hussey said. “Most of the damage was restricted to the kitchen and bedroom upstairs. The rest of the house did have smoke damage.”
He said an investigator with the Office of the State Fire Marshal will be at the scene Tuesday to try to determine the cause.
“It could be electrical. It could be the refrigerator. But it was not the wood stove,” Hussey said.
More than 30 firefighters from Peru, Dixfield, Mexico and Rumford responded, along with Med-Care Ambulanceesponded.
Hussey said they only used about 3,000 gallons of water. Doing much of the work was the Peru truck from the Worthley Pond station, as well as a tanker truck from the accident scene that went directly to the fire.
“Dan Carrier was in charge. I was very proud of the guys. They did a great job,” said Hussey.
Firefighters cleared the scene around 8 p.m. Meanwhile, Hussey remained at the vehicle accident scene until 9 p.m.
bfarrin@sunmediagroup.net
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.