ALTON – Firefighters from several communities spent a difficult Friday afternoon battling fires at two locations a few miles apart.

A great-grandmother’s home was destroyed by fire early Friday afternoon on the Tannery Road in Alton.

While firefighters fought to control that blaze, a call came in for a garage fire at a residence on the Bennoch Road in nearby Old Town.

No injuries were reported at either location.

Joyce Ellis, who lived in the Alton house for nearly 60 years, was at home with her two great-grandchildren, ages 4 and 8. Around 1:15 p.m. they heard the doorbell ringing. Hannah Smith, 8, went to answer the door, but as she entered the front hall, all she could see was smoke, and she yelled to her great-grandmother, Hannah later recounted.

Ellis grabbed a cellphone, took the children out the back door and then called 911.

Fire departments from Alton, Hudson, Old Town, Milford, LaGrange and Glenburn responded to the alarm.

“We all got out,” Ellis said as firefighters continued to control the flames, “and we don’t worry about junk.”

Ellis said that 15 minutes before they saw the smoke she had put her cat outside.

“There was no smoke,” she said. “That’s how fast it was. It’s unbelievable.

“I told them I’d like to save the barn if they can,” she said, as smoke blew toward her. “I hope they keep the barn from going up.”

At first, firefighters on the scene faced a manpower shortage as they waited for more volunteer firefighters to arrive.

An unidentified Alton firefighter said there was nearly a water shortage as well.

“We were just about out of water,” he said. “We cut it pretty close.”

Assistant Fire Chief Jim Ferro of the Alton Fire Department said that when trucks arrived on the scene, the entire front of the home was on fire.

“The building is a total loss,” he said. “It was beyond saving when we arrived, and we’re not sure how it started.”

Ferro said the departments fought the blaze but also directed a great deal of water at the barn, located a few hundred feet from the house. The barn was saved.

Between 15,000 and 20,000 gallons of water were used to put out the flames, Ferro said. The fire was under control by 2:45 p.m.

Ellis said she thinks the fire began on the porch. She mentioned that a generator used for power outages was on the porch. It was not running at the time, but there was gasoline in the tank.

Ferro would not speculate whether the generator could have started the fire.

Ellis’ Ford Tempo, parked directly in front of the house, was severely damaged. It caught on fire and all of the windows were blown out.

Members of Ellis’ family live on the road and were nearby to offer comforting words.

“If it had to happen, at least it happened at the right time, during the day,” her son John Ellis said. “Thank God no one was asleep.”

Ferro said the fire is still under investigation.

Virtually the same crew that fought the blaze in Alton responded to the alarm in Old Town.

According to Old Town Assistant Fire Chief James Lavoie, firefighters on their way back from Alton to Old Town spotted a “header,” or column of smoke, in the sky above Bennoch Road.

“It worked out great,” Lavoie said. “We all worked as one department.”

According to Lavoie, the fire began about 3:45 p.m., while homeowner David Shorey was welding. Lavoie said that Shorey noticed what appeared to be a vapor fire near the floor. Shorey called the Fire Department and then attempted to extinguish the fire with a garden hose.

Though the cause was still under investigation late Friday afternoon, Lavoie said that the fire might have started as the result of a gas leak. The floor of the garage was clean of debris at the time, he said.

Tanker trucks played a key role in fighting that fire because the rural area in which it occurred is not served by hydrants, Lavoie said.

The fire was brought under control within 15 to 20 minutes of the firefighters’ arrival, though fire crews remained to put out several flare-ups.

Old Town firefighters were assisted by their counterparts from Alton, Hudson, Glenburn and Milford, as well as a crew from Orono that was covering for Old Town at the time. The fire consumed all but the back wall of the two-car, two-story garage. Fire crews halted the flames before they reached the nearby house, which was not damaged.

A dollar amount for the damage to the garage and its contents was not immediately available.

NEWS reporter Dawn Gagnon contributed to this report.