BIDDEFORD — A fire in an apartment building on the corner of Main and Hill streets on Tuesday evening was a suicide and arson, started by the man who died in the blaze, according to results of an investigation today by the State Fire Marshal’s Office.
No other occupants were injured, but the eight survivors have been left homeless.
The body of 49-year-old Ricardo Santiesteban was found in the bedroom of his apartment that he shared with his wife, according to a statement released this morning by the Maine Department of Public Safety. One of the fire marshal arson dogs assisted investigators in pinpointing that gasoline has been poured inside the bedroom, police said.
The man’s wife, Gail Rydle, was not at home at the time of the fire. Fire investigators say Santiesteban had been drinking most of the day, had bought the gasoline earlier in the afternoon, and then had a friend deliver what turned out to be a suicide note to Rydle, who was at another apartment nearby, according to officials.
An autopsy is scheduled at the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Augusta.
Shortly before 5:30 p.m., the call for the two-alarm fire came into the Biddeford Fire Department, he said. The back of the eight-unit building was engulfed in flames when fire personnel arrived.
The fire, which started in a second-floor apartment, quickly moved up to the attic, said Deputy Fire Chief Paul LaBrecque.
“It did happen really fast,” said Doug Sanford, owner of the Pepperell Mill Campus, which is across Main Street from the building. “All of a sudden I saw smoke.”
He said he watched the fire response from the roof of one of his mill buildings.
Sanford called firefighters on the scene “pretty courageous.” He said he saw two firefighters on a ladder truck engulfed in smoke as they attacked the fire that was coming from the top of the four-floor building.
“I could only see his boots on the ladder,” said Sanford about one of the firefighters.
Two firefighters were taken to Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford to be treated for smoke inhalation, said LaBrecque.
It took several hours to get the fire under control. Other fire departments that assisted included Saco, Scarborough, Goodwin Mills and Arundel, LaBrecque said.
LaBrecque said the Red Cross and the Biddeford Department of Health and Welfare were assisting the apartment building occupants.
— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.
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