Fatal fire’s cause elusive

BANGOR – Investigators were still working late Monday to determine the cause of a fire Sunday night that claimed the lives of two people in an apartment building at the corner of Essex and Cumberland streets.

The fire victims were identified as Lisa Marie McCarty, 32, who lived in a second-floor apartment, and her friend Steven Alan Coffin, 50, of Bangor.

The two died of smoke inhalation, according to Sgt. Stewart Jacobs, fire investigations supervisor for the state Fire Marshal’s Office. He said the fire began in the kitchen of McCarty’s apartment. Damage was heaviest near the stove, though the fire could have started elsewhere in the kitchen. Investigators still were trying to pinpoint the cause of the fire late Monday afternoon.

Coffin was a cook and a bartender at The New Waverly restaurant in downtown Bangor at the time of his death, according to his obituary.

Born in Bangor, he was a graduate of Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft and served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He leaves a son and daughter-in-law, four brothers, three sisters, three grandchildren and several aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins.

An obituary for McCarty was not available at press time.

Assistant Fire Chief Vance Tripp said the building housed eight to 10 tenants, but that some of them weren’t home at the time of the fire.

Three other people who were inside the building when the fire occurred reached safety by way of a back fire escape, according to fire officials.

Three smoke detectors in McCarty’s apartment were not in working order when the fire broke out, Jacobs said Monday.

The battery had been removed from one detector, Jacobs said. He said two hard-wired smoke detectors also in the apartment had been taken apart.

Tripp said that working smoke detectors “might have made a difference.”

“It was fairly early in the evening,” Tripp said. “It had just barely gotten dark. Other people who heard [alarms elsewhere in the building] got out. Smoke detectors do save lives. It’s a proven fact.”

Otherwise, the building had no known safety issues, city Code Enforcement Officer Dan Wellington said Monday.

Wellington said that a city housing inspector visited the building in 1999 to address a tenant’s improper use of electrical extension cords in a first-floor apartment. The problem was resolved at that time and was not a factor in Sunday’s fire, he said.

The fire at 182-186 Essex St. was reported at 8:55 p.m. Sunday. When firefighters arrived, flames were shooting out of the apartment building’s front and rear windows.

Crews arrived minutes after the fire was reported and extinguished the flames within two hours. Firefighters remained on the scene through the morning to monitor the structure.

Two firefighters were injured while fighting the fire. A fire captain suffered a second-degree burn on the back of his neck and a firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion.

The 21/2-story building, owned by Andrew and Carolyn Samaras of Dixmont and their company SMRS Property Corp., housed four apartment units as well as the RAM Tattoo parlor located on the first floor. According to Jacobs, the apartment building was insured.

On Monday, the building’s owners disputed reports that a door leading to the fire escape was boarded up with two-by-four boards.

Assistant Fire Chief Tripp said that investigators found no doors that had been boarded over. Fire Marshal Jacobs said that a hook-and-eye latch secured one of the exit doors but that investigators found no evidence of exits having been boarded over.

The Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross sent relief volunteers to the scene and as of Monday afternoon had met with two of the families affected by the fire and planned to meet with a third family.

Emergency relief in the form of food, clothing, shelter and mental health assistance were offered to those who needed them, a chapter spokesman said.

Contributions for the victims of Sunday’s fire and of other disasters can be made to the chapter at 33 Mildred Ave., Bangor 04401.