EASTBROOK – The local fire chief, critically injured in an April 19 fire, has developed pneumonia, but his burns continue to heal, a relative said Monday.

Rick McNeil, 35, remains on a respirator and in a medically induced coma at Maine Medical Center in Portland, according to his half brother Jim Edgerly. Edgerly also is Eastbrook’s assistant fire chief.

“He’s got pneumonia right now,” Edgerly said Monday evening. “They said it was expected.”

McNeil’s 13-year-old son, Thomas “Tommy” McNeil, died in the early morning fire, which destroyed McNeil’s mobile home on Abbott Lane on Saturday, April 19. McNeil suffered burns to his arms, head and back before another half brother, Paul Edgerly, ran across the road from his home and pulled McNeil from the burning mobile home.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation by Maine State Police and the State Fire Marshal’s Office. Police have interviewed a third person who escaped the fire unharmed, but they have declined to name her or indicate whether she might know how the fire started.

McNeil could be kept unconscious for another week or so, until he is well enough to be woken up, according to Jim Edgerly.

“He’s getting a little bit better,” Edgerly said.

In the meantime, McNeil’s family and neighbors are making preparations for McNeil’s return home.

Linda Davis, a friend of the family, said Monday that Eastbrook native Tim Sylvia, a former Ultimate Fighting Championship Champion, is going to lend a hand. Sylvia will be in Eastbrook on Sunday, May 18, to sign autographs and sell T-shirts from 1 to 4 p.m. at the community building on Route 200. All proceeds will go to McNeil and his family, she said.

Other donations also are coming in. Edgerly said that City Line Sand & Gravel of Ellsworth has cleaned up the fire site free of charge and that a replacement mobile home donated by Sargent’s Manufactured Homes of Ellsworth is expected to be in place by the end of the week. A concrete slab is scheduled to be poured on the property Wednesday and the mobile home set up on the slab Friday, he said.

Members of the eighth-grade class at Cave Hill School, where Tommy and his brother, Richard McNeil, 14, both were pupils, have given Richard a new bike to replace one that was lost in the fire, his family has said. Richard was spending the night at his grandmother’s house next door when the fire occurred.

A benefit breakfast with raffles is planned for 6 a.m. Sunday, May 4, at the community building. Financial donations can be made to the Tommy McNeil Memorial Fund, which has been set up at the Ellsworth bank branch of The First, according to Edgerly.

Information is available by calling the Eastbrook Volunteer Fire Department at 565-3519 or visiting www.eastbrookvfd.org.