House damage minimal after Orono chimney fire

ORONO – A quick response by firefighters and residents of a Margin Street residence minimized damage to the house after a chimney fire spread to a section of the kitchen Monday evening.

The fire did little structural damage, reported Capt. Henry Vaughan of the Orono Fire Department.

Power was restored to most of the house. The residents, Evelyn and Erwin Chubbuck, however, were expected to stay with family overnight. Their 17-year-old granddaughter, who was visiting, was taken to St. Joseph Hospital for observation because she is asthmatic and suffered minor smoke inhalation.

The Chubbucks, who were upstairs when the fire started, reported hearing their smoke detectors go off and then saw smoke coming up through the floor. When they got downstairs, they discovered flames in their kitchen.

Vaughan said that after getting her grandparents out, the teen-age girl went back in the home to get her grandfather’s oxygen tanks.

A pot of water on the kitchen stove was splashing on the fire as the residents were leaving, Vaughan said.

Firefighters were called to the residence shortly before 5 p.m. and had the fire under control within 20 minutes, Vaughan said. He said the fire appeared to have spread to the kitchen via a small unused thimble connection to the chimney and that the fire was contained to the ceiling and walls in the kitchen.