HOULTON – Investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s Office said it is unlikely that officials will ever know what sparked a fire that killed a Houlton man when it gutted his home Feb. 2.

State police spokesman Stephen McCausland said that investigators believe the fire that killed Duane Knapp, 53, at his 30 Columbia St. residence in the late afternoon started near a living room chair.

It appears Knapp, who worked as a meat cutter at a local grocery store, may have tried to extinguish the fire before being overcome by smoke.

His body was found inside the home.

Houlton Fire Chief Milton Cone said he believed the open architecture of the first floor – it lacked separations between rooms – allowed the fire to burn hot and fast.

Exceptionally windy conditions also made firefighting difficult.

This is the second fatal fire in the southern Aroostook area in the past month. In mid-January, Edwin Connelly Jr., 59, of Amity and nine of his dogs died after a fire swept through his mobile home.

His body was found several days later after a plow truck operator discovered the fire when he went to plow the man’s driveway.

All that was left of the structure after the blaze were the steel beams the mobile home once sat on.

The Feb. 2 fire that killed Knapp was the second fatality that weekend. A 93-year-old Palermo man also died early on that day when fire swept through his farmhouse.

The Palermo home was heated with two wood stoves, but there was nothing left of the house to investigate, so a cause of that fire likely will not be determined either, according to McCausland.

Four people have been killed in fires in the state this year.

jlbdn@ainop.com

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