BOWDOINHAM
Bowdoinham firefighters responded to a structure fire on Wildes Road early Friday morning. They not only extinguished the fire before it destroyed the home, but rescued the homeowner from a second-story porch.
Fire Chief Jack Tourtelotte said his department received a report of a structure fire with a woman trapped on the balcony at about 12:50 a.m.
Tourtelotte said Capt. Toby Frizzle and firefighter Rick Ellis arrived on scene, “and when they got there, they acquired a ladder from somewhere, went to the back of the house and got the lady off the balcony,” which was a secondstory porch.
They put her in an EMS vehicle. Tourtelotte said she wasn’t hurt and although she did breathe in some smoke, it wasn’t serious.
“We arrived shortly after and discovered the fire was in a Christmas tree, which had been ignited by paper next to the wood stove,” Tourtelotte said. “We went in with a fire extinguisher right off the bat and knocked the fire down and mopped up there.”
He estimated the crew was at the fire site for approximately 45 minutes.
Tourtelotte said the homeowner, Anne Kellett, reported the fire and told firefighters that she was sleeping at the time the fire started. No one else was in the home, he said.
The home is too smokedamaged to live in following the fire, Tourtelotte said, but the fire was contained to the living room area where the tree was. That room sustained water and heavy smoke damage, which he estimated at around $3,000 to $5,000.
Tourtelotte said people should make sure they don’t place anything combustible near their wood stoves.
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