Frenchville man injured in shack fire Victim badly burned in ice-fishing incident

ST. AGATHA – A Frenchville man was listed in critical condition Sunday at Maine Medical Center in Portland where he was being treated for burns he suffered when his ice-fishing shack caught fire Saturday night on Long Lake.

Edward Eckstein, 43, reportedly received third-degree burns on his hands, face, chest and back. He was initially taken by ambulance to Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent before being flown to Portland at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday.

Warden Ed Christie, who was called to the scene Saturday night, said the accident was initially reported to Maine State Police as an explosion.

He said, however, that the 6-foot-by-8-foot shack was intact, but it was obvious that there had been a fire inside.

“The inside was black,” he said Sunday afternoon. “Everything in there was charred.”

The warden added that some of the sprayed-on polyurethane insulation used on the walls inside the shack had melted as well as a Coca-Cola bottle and radio and several candles inside the structure.

Tim Lowell of the State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the fire. He said Sunday that actual fire damage to the shack was minimal. His investigation so far indicates that the fire was caused when Eckstein was filling a liquid-fueled lantern used for light in the shack.

He said vapors from the white gas used as fuel might have been ignited by either smoking material or the flame on a candle that was being used for light at the time.

The fire occurred sometime between 9:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Lowell said two people had gone out to the shack to see if Eckstein had caught any fish. As they approached the shack, they noticed a strange odor. When they knocked on the door, they heard groaning and someone inside said, “get in here.”

When they opened the door, they smelled smoke and saw Eckstein lying on the ice, burned.

The two men left Eckstein in the shack, because it was warmer, and called for help from the St. Agatha Fire Department. “If they hadn’t stopped by, he probably would have perished,” Lowell said.

He added that Eckstein also could have drowned or died from hypothermia had he fallen through the 2-foot-by-5-foot hole that had been cut in the center of the ice in the shack to fish through.

Eckstein was taken from the scene by a snowmobile and tote sled, and then transferred to an ambulance, Christie said.