Firefighter summoned for speeding to scene

A Glenburn firefighter was summoned on a charge of criminal speeding after he was seen by an Orono police officer racing to the scene of a car fire despite wet road conditions.

John P. Vandez, 30, was driving too fast for road conditions and potentially put himself and others at risk, reported Orono police Officer Travis Erickson, who clocked Vandez going 83 mph in a 45-mph zone on Forest Avenue on Monday morning.

Vandez, of Orono, was called to a car fire in Glenburn, described by the commanding officer at the scene as one of the hottest car fires he’s ever seen.

Erickson said that at 9:48 a.m. he was heading toward town on Forest Avenue when he saw Vandez’s full-size pickup truck with its red light flashing on the dashboard speeding around the corner of Forest Avenue and the Orono Landing Road. He estimated the truck was going 75 mph but the radar indicated an even faster speed. The officer noted it had been raining.

Erickson turned around but lost sight of the pickup truck, although he left a message through the Penobscot Regional Communications Center to have someone in charge at the fire scene contact him. He got the call shortly before 11 a.m.

Questioned by Erickson, the Glenburn fire official acknowledged that department policy doesn’t support firefighters speeding to a scene and that they put the red lights in their personal vehicles at their own risk. He and a dispatcher told Erickson that they had not told Vandez to expedite to the scene.

An 18-year-old Orono man who severely cut himself in an apparent suicide attempt while parked along Interstate 95 Tuesday evening is expected to survive his wounds.

A Penobscot County sheriff’s deputy investigating what appeared to be a disabled motor vehicle came across a grisly scene along the southbound late of the interstate near the Veazie town line.

Authorities found a razor blade inside the white Subaru Forester left parked in the breakdown lane. The occupant, Thomas J. Lew, had e-mailed his stepsister indicating he was despondent over some things going on in his life, said State Trooper Dan Ryan.

In a steady rain, state police searched the area around the sports utility vehicle but found nothing to indicate foul play, he said. A portable stereo and headset left in the passenger seat suggested the man had been alone, the trooper said. A state trooper stayed on the scene after Lew was taken to the hospital in case the investigation led police to something other than suicide, he said. Police investigators visited Lew’s dormitory room at the University of Maine, Ryan said.

Despite the deep cuts and blood loss, Lew “probably would survive,” Ryan said officials at Eastern Maine Medical Center told him. A hospital nursing supervisor said late Tuesday night that she had no information about Lew.

What may have saved his life was that Lew’s SUV was spotted by Penobscot County Sheriff’s Deputy Doug Smith, who saw its four-way flashers and decided to see if the motorist needed help.

Fire heavily damaged a parked car outside a mechanic’s shop on Grouse Lane in Hermon on Tuesday evening, initially prompting concern that fire could spread to combustibles inside.

But the car, initially reported as being near the building, turned out to be about 40 feet from the building and across a parking area; the fire was under control in about two minutes. Concerns that propane tanks and other flammable liquids may have been inside the nearby building prompted calls to Levant and Carmel fire departments to assist the Hermon Fire Department, said Hermon Lt. Ben Donnerstag.

When firefighters arrived at Grouse Lane, a small road off the Bond Road, they found the Pontiac Grand Am in flames sitting about 40 feet from the garage. Donnerstag said it wasn’t known what caused the car to ignite.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli