MILLINOCKET – Firefighters battled icy cold conditions to save a Connecticut Avenue house from total destruction after a fire broke out in an attached garage Saturday night.

Firefighters “did a fantastic job,” homeowner John Civiello said Sunday. “I thought everything was going to be gone, but the structural integrity of the house is still fine. They were working not in the best of conditions.”

Civiello, 52, a Katahdin Paper Co. worker, said he and his wife, Kathy, were home at 166 Connecticut Ave. when they noticed the fire and called 911. Fire Chief Wayne Campbell said the call came at about 5:15 p.m.

When firefighters arrived minutes later, they saw the garage burning ferociously. Its roof had collapsed, two vehicles and most items inside were destroyed and an exterior house wall was beginning to burn, Campbell said.

As firefighters surrounded the garage and started dousing flames, Campbell formed an interior attack team that went into the house and pushed the fire back to the garage, he said.

About 20 full-time and call firefighters answered the alarm. This allowed Campbell to rotate firefighters through a Millinocket Regional Hospital ambulance as the firefighting went on, keeping them warm and fresh from the zero-degree temperatures.

Though ice was a constant hazard, freezing on their protective gear and threatening to clog nozzles, no firefighters were injured. The fire did some interior damage to the house, although it was primarily smoke and water damage, Campbell said.

“I truly believe these guys [firefighters] do a hell of a job for people from a very small town, and they did it again last night,” Campbell said Sunday. “When we got there, it looked like the whole place was going to be gone, and as it turns out, even the garage still has some walls standing.”

Still, the smoke and water damage effectively leaves the Civiellos with no house, vehicles or possessions, at least through the holidays. That’s why residents Lisa Hayes and Shelley Farrington, a town school committee member, are collecting items for the family from residents.

Christmas presents were salvaged, but the Civiellos need everything from furniture to utensils to clothes to toiletries,

“Due to the heavy smoke and soot, there was nothing really salvageable,” Hayes said Sunday.

“The most heartbreaking part of this thing is that it’s 10 days before Christmas,” she added. “I want them to look back on the holidays as something good, and with the community coming together, I think we can accomplish that.”

Civiello was happily surprised, he said, to awaken Sunday and find a $250 gift certificate from Miller’s department store, which Farrington’s husband, Matthew, manages, awaiting him.

“I just can’t say how much I appreciate what they’re doing,” Civiello said. “You realize how wonderful it is to live in a small community where everybody knows you.”

To make a donation, contact Hayes at lisa@katahdinculture.com or 723-4761 or mail Shelley Farrington, 185 Cottage Road, Millinocket, 04462.

Nick Sambides Jr. can be reached at nsambides@

bangordailynews.net or 794-8215.