Flames fueled by gusting winds destroy a three-story house Sunday morning at 39 Franklin St. in Rumford. Firefighters said 40-mph winds carried embers onto a second historical home at 33 Franklin St., which were extinguished quickly. Bruce Farrin/Rumford Falls Times

RUMFORD — State investigators reported Monday that the cause of the fire that destroyed a historic home Sunday morning is undetermined because of the extensive damage, Deputy Fire Chief Mark Arsenault said.

There were no injuries, he said.

The blaze at the three-story home of Greg Cormier at 39 Franklin St. was reported at 6:26 a.m.

Arsenault said Cormier was remodeling the house and left to do an errand and discovered the fire when he returned.

The smoldering frame was razed Sunday, Arsenault said.

Cormier indicated the house was not insured.

Arsenault said two investigators with the Office of State Fire Marshal went to the scene Sunday and gave an initial finding of an undetermined cause because of the extent of damage.

The house was built in 1895 for Col. George D. Bisbee, who worked closely with Hugh. J. Chisholm, the first president of International Paper Co., and was instrumental in the rapid growth of Rumford Falls. Bisbee was one of the most prominent attorneys in Maine and moved his practice to an expanding Rumford Falls in 1892.

Wind-swept flames sent burning embers onto another historic home at 33 Franklin St., and firefighters from Rumford, Andover, Bethel, Dixfield, Mexico, Peru and Roxbury quickly extinguished them. The building is the former Waldo Pettingill House, built in 1891. Pettingill was the first president of Oxford Paper Co.

“When I heard about the fire, it felt like a death in the family,” former owner Albert “Darby” Beliveau said Monday of the Bisbee home. He said he raised his family, including five children, there where they lived from 1965-1998.