Officials probe Bangor house fire

BANGOR – State and local fire officials continued Thursday to investigate the cause of an early morning fire that destroyed a vacant, single-story house on Shepherd Drive.

Investigators were examining the basement of the house late Thursday afternoon and said they expected to remain at the scene most of the night.

No one was hurt in the fire, which threatened neighboring homes.

The only remaining parts of the structure were the front wall of the home and a gas grill on a side porch. The fire appeared to have started in the basement of the two-piece modular home, Assistant Fire Chief Richard Cheverie said.

Bangor Fire and Police departments and the State Fire Marshal’s Office are conducting the investigation.

“We’re still in the process of trying to find out what went on,” Cheverie said, at the fire scene.

The first emergency call came in at 12:51 a.m. Thursday, he said.

The Bangor Fire Department arrived at the scene within six minutes of the first call and found the home, which had been unoccupied for months, engulfed in flame.

“When firefighters were en route, they definitely knew they had a fire because the entire sky was glowing,” Cheverie said.

Vinyl siding on a neighboring house and newly built garage was melted. The owner, who has been trying to sell the house, also was not living in the home.

Numerous immediate neighbors and others living blocks away reported the blaze, Cheverie said.

“Some people said they stepped outside and it felt like a hot day in Texas,” he said.

All Bangor units assisted, while Hampden and Brewer departments took calls for the rest of the city. Crews left around 4 a.m.

Arthur Cote, who has lived across the street for the past 19 years, said he noticed a pickup truck in the driveway at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday while walking his dog. No people were in sight, however.

“No one ever bothers anyone down here at all,” he said. “I have no fears when I leave my house unlocked.”

One neighbor worried about her camper parked in front of her house. Gail Landry, who lives with her 19-year-old son, said the heat from the blaze could be felt near her house, more than 50 yards away.

Landry, the second person to report the fire, said she awakened to a thunderlike noise.

“I didn’t see any lightning, so I went back to bed,” she said. “When I heard all sorts of noises, I opened the blinds, and the whole house was glowing and black smoke was rolling out of it. It was totally gone when the firetrucks came.”

Landry said the homeowner was Scott Reed, son of the owner of Reed’s Auto Body in Brewer.

Cheverie declined to confirm the owner’s name or to say whether the structure was insured.