Wind-whipped flames claim house in Searsport; woman injured

SEARSPORT – A woman was seen with her hair on fire and another escaped in her bare feet as a wind-whipped fire ripped through a Pike Street home Monday morning.

The home was rented by a family from Thailand.

One resident, identified as Amy Nildhaonron, was away and her two children were at school when the fire broke out around 10 a.m. The grandmother and another woman, believed to be a houseguest, were at home and escaped.

Because of the language barrier, authorities at the scene initially were unable to identify the family surname. The grandmother and her daughter operate the Seng Thai Restaurant on Route 1 in Belfast.

A neighbor, Guy Chocensky, said he was working at his business when he heard a woman screaming for help and ran outside.

“She was yelling, ‘Help me, help me,’ and the whole place was burning. The side of the house was all in flames,” he said.

As he ran to the front door, he encountered another, older woman running down the stairs with her hair on fire, Chocensky said.

Chocensky and the woman who shouted for help managed to smother the older woman’s smoldering hair.

He said thick, black smoke was pouring from the house and that it was impossible to enter.

“That woman came down the stairs with her hair on fire. Another minute and she wouldn’t have gotten out,” Chocensky said. “I knew there were two kids living there, but fortunately they were at school.”

Fire Chief Terry Cook said the older woman, whose name he did not know, was taken by Stockton Springs Ambulance to Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast. She was stabilized, then taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where she was being treated for burns to the face and arms.

Cook said the woman had been napping upstairs, smelled the smoke and was hit by the heat and flames as she ran to safety.

“The hospital told me the prognosis looks good,” Cook said of the injured woman.

Cook said he spoke briefly to Nildhaonron, the children’s mother, but that she did not immediately provide the names of the home’s other occupants. The Red Cross is assisting the family and obtained rooms for them at a Belfast motel.

After helping the injured woman and lending the other his slippers, Chocensky called 911. The Searsport Fire Department was at the scene within a few minutes. At that point flames were leaping from the roof and dried grass around the house was burning, he said.

A venting propane tank sent a jet of flame skyrocketing more than 40 feet above the two-story house, he said. The wind whipped the flames into an inferno, and the attached shed and adjoining wall soon collapsed into a heap of blackened, burning embers.

An estimated 45 firefighters from Belfast, Stockton Springs, West Frankfort and Prospect sprayed a steady stream of water from several locations around the burning building. They also made sure other homes in the tightly packed neighborhood did not catch fire.

“They did a good job. Everybody worked well together,” said Cook. “The wind was bad, it even caused a spot grass fire 300 yards from the structure. Some bystanders stomped that out with their feet.”

Landlord Douglas Latham of Searsport said the family had been living in the home for four years. He said Nildhaonron is the only adult in the home who speaks fluent English. He said the occupants were identified by four names on the lease.

Latham described the building as a total loss. He said he had no insurance, other than personal liability. A state fire marshal investigated at the scene, but the cause of the fire had yet to be determined, Cook said. The fire appeared to have started in the attached shed, he added.