Fire razes Old Town lumber building Property damage high as winds fan flames, hinder firefighters

OLD TOWN – Fire destroyed one building and threatened others Wednesday evening at a lumberyard on Bennoch Road.

Old Town’s acting fire chief, James Lavoie, said the fire was first reported at 5:45 p.m. as a structure fire at Stillwater Lumber. Further calls confirmed that it was already a large fire, and Lavoie requested mutual aid from the Hudson, Alton, Bradley and Milford fire departments. The Glenburn and Orono fire departments also provided manpower and trucks.

Nobody was hurt, Lavoie said, although there was clearly a great deal of property damage. The state fire marshal was notified, but it was not known at press time how the fire started or whether it was considered suspicious. The business employs about 18 people.

As Lavoie hurried to the large lumberyard, backed by acres of woodland, he said, “Worst-case scenarios rolled through my mind.” Fire crews arrived to find the planer mill in flames, with fire threatening the kiln building nearby.

Stacks of sawn lumber and asphalt roofing tile were on fire, and firefighters busied themselves containing the blaze. Forklifts and personnel from the lumberyard tried to move the many stacks of wood standing between the flames and the forest. The forklifts were also used to pick apart stacks that were already on fire, to allow access to the fire.

The nearest hydrant was about 1,000 feet down the road, Lavoie said, and the next nearest was at the end of the Airport Road, off Route 43, nearly two miles away. A stream of tanker trucks kept up the supply of water from the Airport Road hydrant.

“We’re going to be here into the night,” Lavoie said. He said the fire was mostly contained, though flames did get into the walls of the kiln building briefly before being extinguished.

Lavoie said high winds were the biggest problem. He added that if conditions had been like last Saturday’s, the fire would have been a lot bigger.

As firefighters sprayed down the largest flames among the stacked lumber, smaller flames continued to lick out from under the collapsed metal roof of the planer mill.

Firefighters poured buckets of extinguishing foam into a special tank on the fire engines, where it mixed with water. Hudson Assistant Fire Chief Bill Grant explained that the foam sits on burning material instead of pouring off, suffocating fire more effectively than water.

Officials warned motorists to avoiod the Bennoch Road if possible today, as it will be closed in the vicinity of the fire for much of the morning.