Machiasport family homeless after fire

MACHIASPORT – Dawn and Kenneth Link lost everything Wednesday when their house in Bucks Harbor burned to the ground.

The Links were staying with family members Wednesday night. They’ll move today to a Machias motel arranged by the Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Fire crews from Machiasport, East Machias and Machias turned out to fight the blaze that started around 9:30 a.m. Two hours later, after the house was determined to be lost, the firefighters ran out of water and waited for a pumper from Jonesboro that would provide more water to finish dousing the fire.

The Links lived on Base Road, a few hundred yards from the Down East Correctional Facility. The two-story wooden house, built not long before the couple married in 1999, was set back in the woods and accessed by a long driveway.

Dawn Link and her sister-in-law, Jenny Berry, had left the house to help their husbands – lobsterman Kenny Link and stern man Ray Berry – bring some traps up to the house from Link’s boat, the Haylee Louise. When the women returned 30 minutes later, they discovered the fire.

While Link called for help on a cellular phone, Berry raced back to the harbor to alert the men.

Link was unable to enter the smoke-filled house to get anything.

Machiasport Fire Chief Dave Nielsen was one of the first volunteers on the scene. But he handed over all duties and control to Joey Dennison, the Machias fire chief, because of a family conflict. Nielsen is Kenny Link’s father.

Dennison referred all questions about the source or extent of the fire to Nielsen, who could not be reached later in the day. No information was available as to whether the family had insurance or the home’s value.

Three cats in the house are missing, but two horses in a nearby stable were removed to safety.

The couple’s two daughters, 4-year-old Haylee and 1-year-old Caitlyn, also are safe. Haylee was at Fort O’Brien School when the fire broke out.

Prison directors invited the Link family to stay at the correctional facility while crews battled the fire in bitter cold. Later, firefighters were served lunch at the prison.

The family was given platters of food and a room for privacy. When Sandra Altmannsberger, the prison’s business services manager, appeared with a toy, Caitlyn smiled.

“They had so many [toys],” Ray Berry said.

“Now we have none, nothing,” Dawn Link said, as her husband held his face in his hands.

Dawn, 26, and Kenny, 28, bought the house together shortly before they married in 1999.

Marcia Bernhardt of Machias, a trained Red Cross volunteer, worked with Dawn to determine the family’s needs, providing vouchers for food, shelter and clothing and prompting others to pitch in with offers of aid.

“The room was buzzing,” Bernhardt said. “Someone said they had a crib, or clothes for the little one. Others said they’d bring milk or diapers.”

Donations for the Link family may be sent to the Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross, 33 Mildred Ave., Bangor 04401-4305; or call 941-2903.