MILLINOCKET – Two police officers helped a town man escape an Aroostook Avenue house early Monday as he battled flames that eventually destroyed his home.

Officers Aaron Brooker and Kevin Ingersoll got about 6 feet inside the front doorway at 434 Aroostook Ave. before heavy smoke stopped them. They crouched, trained their flashlights in the house and yelled to homeowner James Legassey, who came to them, Brooker said.

“This is really on him. I’d love to say that we made our way through a burning building and rescued him, but that really wasn’t the case. He made his way to us,” Brooker said Monday. “We didn’t go traipsing through the building. We knew our limitations and stayed with that.

“I don’t know if I would go so far as to say we saved his life, but we helped him get out,” Brooker added. “I can’t say he would not have made it out of his house on his own.”

Ingersoll was off duty Monday and could not be reached for comment, but Assistant Fire Chief Thomas Malcolm, the incident commander, described the officers’ actions as “great.”

Legassey “was in a lot of smoke,” Malcolm said. “They probably saved his life.”

Police Chief Donald Bolduc was not surprised at the officers’ actions or Brooker’s reticence.

“These are not flashy guys. They do their job, and they usually don’t want a big deal made of it, but they would not hesitate if somebody’s life is in jeopardy,” Bolduc said.

The fire consumed the two-story, wood-frame house despite the arrival of firefighters on Engine 5 and Ladder 1 five minutes after the blaze was reported at 1:45 a.m., Malcolm said.

When they arrived, the back of the house was engulfed in flames. “There was fire coming through the back and roof,” Malcolm said.

Malcolm called for more engines and sent an interior attack team into the house, but intense heat drove it back before firefighters got through the front doorway. They could do little but surround the structure and drown the flames, he said.

Eighteen paid and on-call firefighters from Millinocket, including Bolduc, and seven firefighters from East Millinocket fought the flames, minus 14 degree cold and 25-mph gusts before reporting the fire under control at about 4:30 a.m.

The house’s metal roof probably helped explain the fire’s explosive power, allowing heat to build rapidly, Malcolm said.

“It was cooking big time. I wouldn’t put anybody on it,” Malcolm said. “It was too dangerous.”

The officers had already helped get Legassey out of the house when firefighters arrived.

Lillian Legassey got out first and moved a car to a neighbor’s driveway. When she saw officer Ingersoll arrive at the scene, she let him know her husband was still in the burning building. Ingersoll then yelled to tell Brooker before both policemen went inside.

Nearby residents were dismayed by the fire, describing the Legasseys as good neighbors.

“The first thing I saw were some flashing lights,” said one woman, a next-door neighbor who asked that her name not be used. “I looked out the window and it was the cop cars and the fire. The wind seemed to be blowing pretty strong. It must have been awful for the firefighters. It seemed to be giving them a lot of trouble.

“It’s terrible,” the woman said, adding that she saw James Legassey walking around the fire scene in a borrowed coat as firefighters worked to contain the flames. “They even lost their two cats.”

Firefighters called the American Red Cross to help the Legasseys, who are insured and staying at a local inn.

Sgt. Stu Jacobs of the State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fire, which did not immediately appear to be suspicious, Malcolm said.

Firefighters had to contend not only with the cold but with an arcing electrical wire that fell from the side of the house, Malcolm said, and the ambulance crew got called away three times to deal with other emergencies.

Malcolm shuttled firefighters through the ambulance throughout the emergency, with firefighters and ambulance attendants Paul Brown and Larry MacArthur treating other firefighters to deter frostbite, he said.

One firefighter, Mark Evers, was treated for smoke inhalation at the scene. No one else was injured to his knowledge, Malcolm said.