LEWISTON – A neighbor ran into a burning building on Pierce Street on Friday morning, rescuing a mother and her three young children by leading them out a second-floor window onto a porch roof.

Terry Powell said she’d dashed across the street when she heard sirens just before noon believing the house next door to 136 Pierce St. – not that building – was on fire and wanting to warn people.

She found the mother and kids in a smoke-filled third-floor apartment. The group made it down one flight of stairs before smoke blocked the exit.

“I flung myself out the window and caught a breath of air (and thought), ‘Yes! I’m going to make it,'” Powell said, reliving the experience an hour later.

An hours-long fire devastated the building and left six families homeless. Thirteen of the 15 people who live there were home when the blaze erupted, according to fire officials. Seven were treated on-site for smoke inhalation, and four were taken to the hospital for the same, treated and released.

Dozens of people clogged the street to watch firefighters from Lewiston and Auburn battle the thick, black smoke and keep the fire from spreading to other buildings just feet away.

Later Friday night, Fire Investigator Paul Ouellette said they had pinpointed the origin of the fire to a porch at the back of the burned building. The cause was not immediately known. While the blaze was not deemed suspicious, a Lewiston police detective was assisting with the probe and helping to interview potential witnesses.

The mint-green, three-story building was a total loss. Tax assessors had placed its value at $104,900. Merrill said damage to surrounding buildings was minimal, although some were just a few feet away.

Jason Rice, 30, was home in the first-floor apartment he shares with his mom when the fire started.

“I heard a crackling noise, and it came from the back porch,” he said. “I knew to get the hell out.” He grabbed shoes and a coat. Another neighbor called his mother, Mary Doyle, at work.

“I called a cab and I said, ‘I need to get home, my house is on fire!’ He said, ‘Oh god.’ I didn’t get charged (for the ride),” Doyle said. She shook with relief as a firefighter walked out the smoky front door carrying her old orange tabby cat.

“Oh, they got Hammer!” Doyle said. “My concern was my cat and my son.”

The six-unit building, built in 1919, is owned by Roland Laprise of Old Orchard Beach, according to city records. It was last written up for code violations, which included a lack of working hallway smoke detectors, in February 2005.

Code Enforcement Officer Kim Austin said she revisited in August that year and found most of the problems, including the detectors, fixed. She hasn’t had a complaint since.

The Salvation Army and Red Cross were both on scene helping firefighters and displaced families. John McElrath, a disaster services worker at the Red Cross’ United Valley, said families had been offered a hotel room for the night and were being helped with food and clothes.

Neighbor George Palmer said he had walked out his door to see Powell and others stranded on the front porch roof. The mom, cradling a young baby, was panicked, he said.

“We was hollering, ‘Give us the baby!’ But she was scared to throw the baby,” Palmer said. A man named Roland ran over with a ladder, and he and Palmer helped them down.

Powell said she had been visiting with her mom nearby when everything happened.

“I’ve been on this street 15 years, I know everybody,” she said. “My mother said, the next time there’s a fire, don’t go inside.”

Sun Journal staff writer Mark LaFlamme contributed to this report.