AUBURN — Firefighters responded to an early morning fire Tuesday after neighbors reported seeing smoke and flames coming from the roof of an apartment building on Highland Avenue.

Tenants were still in the building as firefighting crews arrived shortly after 7 a.m., Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Fifield said in a written media statement.

Local firefighters and police officers worked quickly to successfully remove the tenants from the building, he said.

Firefighters reported smoke and flames in the attic spaces of the building, he said. They were able to get the fire under control and contain the fire to the attic space above the third floor within several minutes, Fifield said. Other areas of the 5-unit apartment building sustained water damage, he said.

The quick containment of the fire was aided by extra personnel since the time of call came at the time of a shift change in the firefighting crew, he said.

The building housed more than 20 tenants who were all being assisted by the American Red Cross, which is using the Auburn Senior Community Center to coordinate assistance to the occupants, he said.

Auburn Fire units were assisted on scene by the Lewiston Fire Department, Auburn Police Department, Auburn Public Works, Central Maine Power Company and the Auburn Water & Sewerage Districts, he said.

Station coverage in Auburn was provided by New Gloucester Fire Department, Turner Fire Department and Oxford Fire Department.

The first Auburn Fire Department units were on scene within four minutes of the original dispatch because some of the responding units were still on the road from a previous emergency call, he said.

The city of Auburn Fire Investigation Team was working to find the cause of the fire, he said.

“Although the Fire Department has been made aware that a portion of the building was experiencing heating troubles (those tenants were using alternative heating equipment while waiting for repairs), the cause of the fire remains undetermined at this time,” Fifield said.

Tenant Devan Deschaine said he received a call just before 7 a.m. Tuesday about a fire in his top-floor apartment.

Neighbors on scene said they noticed fire coming out of the roof between the two chimneys and knocked on the doors of the apartments at 46-50 Highland Ave.

One tenant said about 20 people live in the apartment building. There were some neighbors and tenants outside the apartment building as crews worked on the scene. By 11:30 a.m., firefighters were allowing some tenants to retrieve items from some apartments.

Deschaine’s girlfriend was lying in bed when firefighters entered their apartment and alerted her to the fire, he said. She, along with their cat and rabbit, made it out of the apartment unharmed.

The apartment had not had heat for a couple of weeks, so the couple were using electrical heaters as their heating source, provided by their landlord, he said.

Deschaine took what he could salvage late Tuesday morning, including his child’s baby blanket, and put it in the truck he was driving. No children were in his apartment when the fire started, he said.

The couple moved into the apartment around September, and they were happy to finally have permanent housing after living in a camper on their friend’s property, but there have been issues with the apartment since they moved in, he said.

He will contact Red Cross for assistance but is unsure about where exactly he and his girlfriend are going to go.

“Just definitely one step back, but we’ve made it through worse,” he said.

Copy the Story Link

Comments are not available on this story.

« Previous

Turner woman admits to federal gun crimes

Next »

DaVinci’s Eatery says a complaint of a cockroach in the kitchen prompted temporary closing