Hermon home destroyed by fire

HERMON – A double-wide mobile home was destroyed by fire Monday.

A motorcycle, a camper and a “for sale by owner” sign sat in front of the remains of the 132 Fuller Road home.

Firefighters from four different agencies assisted the Hermon Fire Department in fighting the blaze that filled the neighborhood with a smoky haze.

The Hermon Fire Department arrived at the residence after it received a call from a neighbor who saw smoke around 2:30 p.m. The unidentified owners and their two dogs were not at home when the fire started.

The building is owned by Henry Dephillipo, according to Hermon Fire Capt. Dale Stout.

The cause of the fire was unknown Monday evening as the State Fire Marshal’s Office continued its investigation. No one was injured.

Firefighters at the scene said the interior of the building had been burned out by the time they got there.

Nancy Doughty, 23, the neighbor who reported the fire, said Monday that she was driving home from work when she saw smoke pouring into the sky from her neighbor’s home.

Doughty called the Fire Department from her home.

“I was driving home from work and I saw smoke coming out of the top of the roof,” Doughty said. “There were two kids on bikes who had driven up to [the fire]. I told them to get out of there and to go home, because I was worried about that propane tank.”

Doughty’s worries were warranted. As firefighters hosed down the blackened frame of the house, a propane tank lay in the grass 150 feet away. Doughty said the tank had been on the house’s porch.

“It must’ve launched,” Doughty said. “I didn’t see it, but I sure heard it.”

The neighbor said she heard what sounded like an explosion about 10 minutes after she made the emergency call. She said she thought the noise was the result of the propane tank igniting.

Doughty said the people who lived in the house planned to move to Tennessee. She added that the for-sale sign had been in front of the house for the last “three of four months.”

Firefighters from Newburgh, Carmel, Levant and Bangor assisted at the scene. Sixteen firefighters from Hermon were the first to respond to the report, Stout said.

A tanker truck from the Maine Air National Guard in Bangor provided approximately 7,000 gallons of water since Hermon has no fire hydrants, Stout said.

Officers from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department also were on hand directing traffic.

Bangor Daily News reporter Jackie Farwell contributed to this report.