PASSADUMKEAG – Houses made of straw apparently do not last long, even when there’s no Big Bad Wolf to huff and puff and blow them down.

Just ask volunteer Fire Chief Brent Faloon.

Faloon and his firefighters were responding to a report of a structure fire near 202 Pleasant St. at about 11:35 p.m. Sunday when they came upon the building that was ablaze: a straw house.

Not that the 20 firefighters who responded believed it any more than did Faloon.

“The guys went in there through the woods and one of them hollered over the radio, ‘You are not going to believe this,'” Faloon said Monday.

It turns out that the homeowner, whom Faloon identified as Arthur Essence, had built three sides of the house with bales of straw. The other sides were made of wood and rock masonry, and the “roof” was a blue plastic tarp. Inside the 14-square-foot structure were two wood stoves – one for heat and one for cooking, Faloon said.

Faloon said he didn’t know whether Essence owned the land or the structure, or whether construction was ongoing.

Essence himself telephoned 911 to report the fire after having walked barefoot in the snow about three-eighths of a mile to a neighbor’s home, Faloon said.

Essence apparently woke up to discover the blaze and suffered minor burns and a laceration. He was treated at Penobscot Valley Hospital in Lincoln on Monday and released and had been provided temporary shelter by the American Red Cross at a motel in Lincoln, Faloon said.

A man who answered the telephone in Essence’s room at the motel on Monday declined to comment.

“I really can’t talk. I am sorry. Have a nice day,” he said before hanging up.

Firefighters from Passadumkeag and Greenbush had a difficult time getting to the flames, Faloon said. The house was visible from the street, but it had no driveway and apparently no pathway to it, so firefighters had to slog through deep snow and ice with their hoses. No firefighters were injured.

Faloon said he had never seen a straw house before, but the results of the fire were tragically familiar.

Besides suffering his injuries, Essence lost everything he had to the flames, Faloon said.

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