MECHANIC FALLS – Words escaped a stunned Robin Dufour on Sunday as firefighters from seven area fire departments raced past the Mechanic Falls mother of five in hope of saving at least some of her family’s keepsakes and memories from flames.

But in the end, the home Dufour shared with her husband and children for more than 20 years on Riverside Drive – located next door to the home where she grew up – was deemed a total loss by the Mechanic Falls Fire Department.

“I’m from this community. There’s a huge support here,” said Dufour, surrounded by friends, family and neighbors gathered to hug, help and comfort the long-time education technician at Elm Street Elementary School. “We’ll get by.”

Mechanic Falls fire Chief Fred Sturtevant said a neighbor reported the fire at 4:50 p.m. after checking to make sure that no one was inside the home. He said that although the blaze is not considered suspicious, the State Fire Marshal’s Office was contacted for assistance in determining the fire’s cause. He estimated damages in excess of $100,000.

“We just don’t know yet,” Sturtevant said. “There’s too much fire damage in there right now to determine.”

The blaze appears to have started in the front room of the five-bedroom manufactured home and spread quickly to the back of the house via the ceiling, according to Sturtevant. He said the cause may have been electrical.

Dufour’s mother, Judy Arris, said she and her husband saw smoke coming from the house.

“My husband went out to look and he hollered back to call the fire department,” Arris said.

The Dufours weren’t home when the fire was spotted.

“We were out snow tubing and then we went to Wal-Mart,” said a tearful Dufour as she was comforted by an older son.

Dufour said she received a phone call while at Wal-Mart that her house was on fire and rushed back home with her daughters Mariah, 12, and Katelyn, 7.

Firefighters had the blaze under control in about 25 minutes, but were on scene for more than two hours. Although located nearly one-quarter mile from Route 11, the blaze shut down the state highway because firefighters needed to run 1,100 feet of hose to the home from the nearest water hydrant, which is located on Route 11.

Meanwhile, Dufour and her husband, Dennis – a local real estate agent – have already started seeing an outpouring of support from their neighbors. Within hours, word of mouth spread throughout the Mechanic Falls community and by Sunday evening five bags of clothes had been collected for the family.

“They’re going to need everything,” said Jan Jordan, a close friend of the family. “It’s a really supportive community around here.”

Besides community support from next door neighbors, Sturtevant also cited the importance of community among fire departments – especially in situations like Sunday’s blaze. He gave a lot of credit to the mutual aid provided by the 50-plus firefighters who arrived from Hebron, Poland, Minot, Paris, Oxford and Norway to help Mechanic Falls battle the blaze.

“We all train together now,” Sturtevant said. “We realize that we can’t do it alone anymore. We depend on mutual aid. We need each other.”

Staff writer Leslie H. Dixon contributed to this report.



How to help: Anyone wanting to help the Dufour family can contact Roger and Judy Arris at (207) 345-9594.