HOULTON – Nineteen rooms were destroyed and nine more heavily damaged when a fire ravaged the front section of the Shiretown Motor Inn on U.S. Route 1 on Thursday.

No one was injured as a result of the blaze, which officials say started when a maintenance worker at the motel was reportedly using a propane torch to repair a pipe inside one of the rooms in the front section of the motel, which faces Route 1.

Milton Cone, the chief of the Houlton Fire Department, said officials believe that combustible material near the repair site may have caught fire and spread.

The fire was reported by the motel’s front desk clerk just after 10 a.m. The motel has 52 guest rooms, according to its Web site.

The motel’s swimming pool, health club and additional rooms, along with Governor’s Restaurant and Bakery, are located on the premises in a building separate from the structure that burned.

Wind quickly whipped up the flames, which soon ravaged numerous rooms on the front side of the building nearest the main office as firefighters fought the blaze.

The motel was full. A number of the rooms were rented by construction workers who are completing an expansion project at Louisiana-Pacific in New Limerick. At the time of the fire, however, motel staff said most of the guests had already left the facility.

Marty Gervais, the motel’s owner, has contacted the American Red Cross to assist those who were displaced as a result of the fire. Gervais watched from a short distance as firefighters ripped off portions of the roof and sides of the building in order to contain the blaze.

Guests and employees were quickly evacuated from the motel. Employees and patrons of Governor’s Restaurant also left.

Thick black smoke was visible over Houlton’s skyline by 10:30 a.m. Pieces of black and gray debris swirled through the air at the fire scene.

The Houlton Water Co. cut off electricity to the motel shortly after the fire broke out. A portion of the motel’s roof later caved in. Firefighters were attacking the flames from all sides of the structure. A firefighter perched on the end of the ladder truck’s ladder doused the roof with water.

Karen Parker, 29, of Waterbury, Conn., who came to Aroostook County for an ATV trip, was staying in Room 134 of the motel when she heard about the fire.

“I came outside and saw a little bit of smoke,” said Parker, watching as firefighters hosed down the front section of the building with water. “I ran back in to get my stuff and tell the people I was staying with, and not even five minutes later, the air out here was just black. It tore through the building so quickly.”

Parker’s friend, Jessica Ouellette, also was vacationing from Connecticut but was staying in Littleton when she heard about the fire.

“You could smell it from Littleton,” she said. The town is approximately 8 miles away. “The smoke is unbelievable.”

Parker said she and her guest got out with all of their belongings, but she said she had talked to another guest who was watching as the room that contained his belongings went up in flames.

“I don’t know what we are going to do now,” she said. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens later this afternoon. We feel so bad for the owners. It’s close to summer and this place was packed already.”

Town Manager Douglas Hazlett was on his way back to Houlton from Presque Isle and said that smoke was visible from as far away as Monticello, approximately 15 miles away.

An investigator from the State Fire Marshal’s Office, who was working out of his office just up the road at the Maine State Police barracks, was on the scene just after the fire broke out.

“He talked to the motel owner and the witnesses and learned how the fire started,” Cone said. “There is no indication that this is anything but an unfortunate accident.”

Onlookers watched from the parking lots of nearby gas stations and restaurants as the motel smoldered. The Houlton Police Department was directing traffic, and the Houlton Ambulance Department, officers from the U.S. Border Patrol and several other agencies offered assistance throughout the day.

Houlton firefighters received mutual aid from the Linneus Fire Department and the Hodgdon Fire Department.

Tony Sullivan, the owner of Governor’s Restaurant and Bakery, said power was restored to the dining establishment just after 2 p.m. Thursday.

“We’re going to open today again at 4 p.m.,” he said on Thursday afternoon. “And we’ll resume our normal hours tomorrow.”

The motel is insured, but specific damage estimates or an assessed value of the affected portion of the structure were not available Thursday afternoon. The unaffected areas of the motel remain open.

Gervais said he was tied up with work on Thursday afternoon and declined to comment on the incident.

Firefighters had much of the fire extinguished by 2 p.m. but remained on the scene to douse hot spots throughout much of the afternoon.