JONESPORT – An early morning fire Friday destroyed one downtown house, but firefighters saved a second home that had caught fire too.

The initial call came in about 12:45 a.m. reporting a fire at the Tim Pottle home on Feeney Street, according to Jonesport Fire Chief Boyde Crowley. The first firefighters on the scene found Pottle’s house in flames, which had begun to spread to the neighboring house owned by Craig Robinson, Crowley said.

“It was just a fireball,” he said. “We knew the Pottle house was going to be a total loss, so we concentrated on trying to save the Robinson house.”

No one was home at the Pottle house at the time of the fire, but a cat died in the blaze.

Neighbors on both sides of the house were evacuated, Crowley said. Neighbors on the other side of the house were awakened by their barking dog and got out of their home. In the commotion outside, Robinson woke up and got his family safely outside.

“They were all out by the time we got there,” Crowley said.

Firefighters were hampered in their efforts to save the Robinson house because there were two burning cars in the Pottle driveway located between the two houses. Even so, it took firefighters about 20 minutes to put out the fire at the Robinsons’ house. Flames had burned the shingles on one side of the building and got onto the roof, but never burned into the interior of the house, Crowley said.

They then turned their efforts to knocking down the fire in the first house. As the night wore on, the cold weather with temperatures around zero, slowed their attack as hoses and pumps began to freeze. But, Crowley said, that was not a factor in saving the house. He said the house was too far gone when firefighters arrived, and there was nothing they could do to save it.

Firefighters left around 4:15 a.m.

At this point, Crowley said they believe the fire started near the wood stove.

About 22 firefighters from Jonesport, Addison, Jonesboro and Columbia responded to the fire call.

rhewitt@bangordailynews.net

667-9394