WINSLOW — Discarded cigarette butts are to blame for sparking a fire Friday afternoon that destroyed a mobile home, damaged a neighbor’s home and three vehicles.
Sgt. Kenneth Grimes said Monday that an investigation by the state Fire Marshal’s Office ruled the fire accidental and determined the cause was discarded smoking materials.
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“They were just thrown on the ground,” Grimes said.
The home was owned by Priscilla Ouellette, 64, of Lot 16 at the rear of Pleasant Ridge Mobile Home Park off Benton Avenue.
Ouellette said she had just started watching television after taking a nap when she smelled smoke coming through the air-conditioner and noticed that her porch was on fire. She grabbed her small dog and a phone and ran outside and called 911 at 2:58 p.m.
The flames had spread to her home by the time firefighters arrived, and it was reduced a heap of smoldering debris.
More than 30 firefighters arrived from Fairfield, Waterville and Winslow, and they immediately began dousing flames that had spread to a next-door mobile home at lot No. 17. The exterior wall of that home was damaged.
Three vehicles were also damaged by the fire, including Ouellette’s 2008 Dodge Durango Adventurer, her son’s motorcycle and a neighbor’s vehicle.
When Fire Chief David LaFountain initially asked Ouellette if she had any idea how the fire had started, and all she could think is that her son, Bert Ouellette, had been smoking on the porch earlier in the morning, but he had since left.
Scott Monroe — 861-9239
smonroe@centralmaine.com
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