LEWISTON — Several tenants escaped a burning three-story apartment house Thursday night on Howard Street. There were no immediate reports of injury.
The first crews inside the building at 75 Howard St. reported flames on the lower floors.
Neighbors reported first smelling smoke and then seeing it pouring from the back of the building. None knew how or where the fire started, although several said it appeared to have originated in the rear of the structure.
Fire investigators later said the fire started in a first floor bedroom at the back of the building when a candle fell off a chest freezer and onto a pile of clothes.
Five minutes after fire crews arrived at the scene, three women were seen running up to the building, one of them in tears. They spoke briefly with firefighters and were led away from the building. Minutes later, another group approached firefighters, visibly upset as they watched the building burn.
Power was shut off as firefighters attacked the blaze from inside and outside the building, smashing out windows and using ladders to get at the flames.
About 7:30 p.m., firefighters inside the building reported finding more flames inside a wall. A short time later, fire was found in a ceiling as well. Firefighters were cutting into the roof to ventilate heat and smoke and to get at the flames.
Lewiston firefighters were assisted by crews from Auburn, with Lisbon and Sabattus called for mutual aid. At about 8:10 p.m., the fire was declared under control.
Lewiston fire Inspector Paul Ouellette said early Friday morning that 21 people from three families were displaced by the fire. He said 11 people occupy on the second floor of the apartment house while five people live on the third and first floors.
Charles Hale, the maintenance man for 75 Howard St., surveys the damage to the exterior of the building Friday afternoon in downtown Lewiston. The window in front of him is in the room where the fire started when a candle fell into a pile of clothes. The owner of the three-story apartment house was securing it to prevent people from getting inside. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal Buy this Photo
The chest freezer on which the candle had been set was up against a closet with no doors, Ouellette said. When the candle toppled, it fell onto a pile of clothes inside the closet.
Damage to the building was estimated at $100,000. The apartment house is between Walnut and Pine streets. It was built in 1929 and sold in September 2020. The current owner is listed as Yassin Moussa, of Lewiston, in city records.
Police blocked intersections at both ends of Howard Street, directing traffic around the scene, while the fire crews battled the blaze.
No pets were inside the building when it went up in flames, Ouellette said.
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