Occupants unharmed in kitchen grease fire

Grease from a pan making french fries splattered onto a carpet Monday night and set the kitchen of a Capehart apartment afire.

Dispatchers received a call shortly after 8:30 p.m. and alerted the Bangor Fire Depatment to a fire at 64 Bald Mountian Drive. The occupants, Lisa McCarty and her three sons, escaped unharmed.

“Upon our arrival we found we had a grease fire in the kitchen, which extended up through the cabinet area and up into the ceiling on the first floor,” said Assistant Fire Chief Darrell Webb.

Webb said the police department, which monitors the fire department’s radio frequency, had a cruiser in the area and was first to arrive at the scene. Officers sprayed the kitchen area with a dry powder extinguisher that helped to contain the flames.

Wrapped in a wool blanket given to her by firefighters, and comforted by friends and neighbors, McCarty leaned against the garage outside her kitchen door.

Firemen had quelled the flames, and as they secured the area, McCarty looked out of a thin glaze covering her eyes at the kitchen.

“I had the grease on the stove; it splattered and caught the rug on fire,” she explained. Before she could prevent the fire from spreading, the whole rug was afire. “I couldn’t get anywhere near it,” she added.

The boys, ages 5, 8, and 9, got out of the house when they heard the smoke detector sound.

The family has lived in the apartment for 6 years. Webb said the kitchen will have to be rebuilt, and the hallway and the closet