SANGERVILLE – Charlotte Bane, 99, hadn’t noticed the smoke swirling about her apartment Friday afternoon, but she said she did see a man wearing a mask at the top of her stairs.

Before she knew what was going on, Bane was ushered partway down the stairs by Guilford firefighter Gary Grant and then scooped up into the arms of Sangerville Fire Chief Chuck Bean, who carried her to emergency medical technicians at the scene. She said she was OK, but as a precaution emergency medical technicians from Mayo Hospital checked her over.

“I didn’t smell the smoke and I didn’t see any fire, but one of them came in and took me out,” Bane said Friday, pointing to the firefighters. Told she was one lucky woman, Bane replied, “I guess so.”

Bane was alone when fire broke out at about 3:16 p.m. in her second-story apartment building on Maple Street. She was confused and couldn’t recall what she had been doing at the time.

Scott Richardson of the State Fire Marshal’s Office said a worker from a Bangor oil company was soldering a joint on a pipe in a room that was being renovated. The worker had gone downstairs to turn on the water and discovered the fire when he returned upstairs, Richardson said. The employee had tried to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher but they spread too quickly. The employee was cooperative during the investigation, he said.

Chief Bean said the worker was unaware Bane was in the house.

Gary Grant said he and other firefighters had been inside the house searching the rooms for about 10 minutes when he spied the elderly woman walking from a side room. “She was just very, very confused,” he said. Grant said he took his mask off for a second and asked if she was OK and then quickly headed her to the stairs.

Bane lived with her daughter Millie Carr, 79. Carr, who suffers from sciatica and diabetes, had gone to Bangor earlier Friday with Roger Ronco of Sangerville for a doctor’s appointment. When the pair arrived back home at about 4 p.m. and noticed the firetrucks, Carr said she was “petrified.” She was relieved to learn her mother was OK, but then she worried about her 9-year-old cat, Casey.

“I had a feeling this morning that I shouldn’t go, but I was hurting so bad, I decided I’d better go,” Carr said, as she observed the scene from a perch on the rear of a firetruck.

“I’m not leaving,” she said when someone offered to take her to their home.

Carr, who has lived in the apartment for 21 years and had renter’s insurance, mentioned that the home had been under repair for the past few days. She said the house had been damaged during the last ice storm.

Alec and Penny Craig, who own the property and recently had placed it on the market, had been staying in the first-floor apartment in recent weeks, but had left Tuesday to return to their Florida home, she said.

The home, which had an attached barn, was “pretty much demolished,” Bean said. He said the Red Cross had been called to assist the women.

Firefighters returned to the house around 8 p.m. to douse a flare-up.

Sangerville, Guilford, Dover-Foxcroft and Monson firefighters responded to the call.

Dexter firefighters remained on standby at the Sangerville Fire Station, and Cambridge firefighters remained on standby at the Guilford Fire Station.

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