Four towns fight fire in Winterport

WINTERPORT – Fire swept through a Rancourt Road home Sunday, leaving the hilltop house standing but no longer fit for habitation.

“It’s pretty much a total loss,” Fire Chief Stan Bowden said as his firefighters doused the home with water. “The good thing is there were no injuries and there were no animals inside when the fire started.”

The red ranch-style home sits high on a hill with a sweeping view of Mount Waldo. Robert Osgood of the Coles Corner Road recently purchased the home. The family had yet to move in furniture and belongings, though the home was insured.

The Osgoods were elsewhere when the fire broke out. The fact that the fire likely had a good head start before it was detected by neighbors created an untenable situation, Bowden said. He said Sunday’s brisk breezes helped fuel the fire once its flames broke free from the confines of the structure.

“It was already fully engulfed in flames when we got here,” Bowden said.

“Flames were pouring out of the kitchen roof and an alcove. There was not much we could do with it, everything in it was basically destroyed.”

Bowden said he was unsure of the fire’s origin. He said the major concentration of damage appeared to be in the vicinity of a vent pipe from a temporary, mobile home-type oil furnace that had been installed by the previous owner. He said he planned to call in the State Fire Marshal’s Office to determine the exact cause.

Firefighters from Winterport, Frankfort, West Frankfort and Prospect responded to the noon alarm. Approximately 40 people helped fight the fire, many of whom entered the burning building wearing air packs. Bowden credited the tactic of attacking the fire from both inside and outside the building for stopping the fire quickly.

“Usually with a fire like this so far out in the country, it’s already so far gone that all you can do is an outside attack. This one, we kind of knocked it down from inside. It was a good stop,” he said.

Water to fight the fire was shuttled by tanker trucks from a stream where Rancourt Road joins the Boston Road. Bowden added that although the crew members had a brief problem with the department’s pumper truck when they arrived at the scene, “in my opinion it made no significant difference in fighting the fire.”