Person, dog killed in Winterport fire

WINTERPORT – An unidentified person and a dog were killed when fire ripped through a secluded home on Pine View Lane on Saturday night.

Winterport Fire Department Chief Stan Bowden said the human body was recovered from the debris Sunday morning. Bowden said the body was burned beyond recognition and that the state Fire Marshal’s Office ordered an autopsy to determine the gender and cause of death.

Bowden noted that authorities have been unable to locate the home’s owner, Luanne Paige.

The fire was reported at 7:40 p.m. Saturday by a neighbor. The neighbor had gone out to feed her horses and noticed a glow in the sky. The woman got in her car and drove down the dirt road to the home and observed that it was engulfed in flames.

“It was caving in when she got down there, and when we got there it had actually fallen into the cellar,” Bowden said Sunday.

Bowden said the home was located at the end of a narrow, quarter-mile road. Pine View Lane is off Route 139 near the Winterport Airport and ends at the banks of the Marsh Stream.

“It was an extra hard location to fight a fire,” said Bowden “We had to back a truck down in there one at a time. We had a good rotation of tankers, but there was nothing we could do. It was gone when we got there.”

Bowden said that because it was thought someone may have been inside, the Fire Department poured water on the collapsed single-story home until the fire was out.

“We put it out so it could be examined,” said Bowden.

A Waldo County deputy sheriff remained at the scene until the body was discovered the following morning.

Bowden said the Fire Department had mutual-aid assistance from the Monroe, Frankfort, West Frankfort and Hampden fire departments. Bowden said he “couldn’t even venture a guess” as to the cause of the fire, but did note that the home was heated with wood.

“Had that young lady not gone out to feed her horses, that fire would have probably gone undetected until somebody drove down there,” said Bowden.