SWANVILLE – Maine fire marshals are investigating another barn fire in rural Maine, this one Friday night not far from where other barns burned, leaving people in this quiet part of Maine suspicious.

Earlier this week three barns in nearby Albion burned. Authorities have concluded at least one was arson.

“It looks funny,” said Joe Dickey, 76, of the fourth fire, which claimed his barn. “It makes me wonder. I can’t imagine the cause. There was no reason that barn should have burned.”

His barn on the Upper Oak Road was detached from his house.

Dickey, a retired dairy farmer, said his barn was not insured.

“There was very little risk” of fire, he said. “It was an old barn, but in good shape,” he said. After he sold his dairy cows, he saw no reason insure it.

A day earlier another barn was burned in Albion, about 22 miles away. Earlier in the week two other barns burned. Causes of three of he barn fires were not yet determined, but the fires are considered suspicious.

This part of Maine is quiet, “normally,” Dickey said.

Dickey was sitting in his house reading Friday night when he heard a pickup truck pull into his driveway. Two men got out, knocking on his door screaming that the barn was on fire.

When Dickey looked out his door he saw his barn engulfed in flames. The barn was about 1,000 feet from his house, he said.

Dickey’s wife and his neighbor called the fire department. The closest fire department is Belfast, about 28 miles away.

It took about 20 minutes for firefighters to arrive. Meanwhile the barn “went pretty quickly,” Dickey said. His barn was holding more than 2,000 bales of hay. Also in the barn was a conveyor belt, a fertilizer spreader, and a grass seeder. While a retired dairy farmer, Dickey raised and sold hay, he said.

So far authorities have not made connections between the fires, but residents in rural areas with barns are advised to leave outside lights on at night, McCausland said.

“If something looks strange, we want to hear from them. Call 911.”