CORINNA – About 40 firefighters from four area departments fought a house fire Tuesday night that destroyed a rental property.

Corinna Fire Chief Leslie Bolstridge said he did not know the names of the two people renting the home and that previous tenants still might have had belongings in the century-old structure.

Bolstridge said the fire began around the thimble of a wood-burning stove.

“It just got too hot and fire began inside the walls,” he said. No one was injured in the fire.

Bolstridge said the home was a two-story wooden building that had undergone many renovations. “It had tin ceilings, lots of additions,” he said. These types of renovations complicate firefighting, he said, but what really blocked efforts was a metal roof.

“That becomes a real problem,” he said. “There is no way to vent the fire.” Instead of roaring up and out, the fire is trapped beneath the metal roof and destroys everything in the building, he said.

A bucket loader from a nearby construction company was used to lift the metal roof to allow firefighters to get to the flames beneath.

Bolstridge said the fire call came in just after 6 p.m. and firefighters from Corinna, Newport, St. Albans and Dexter responded. They remained at the scene until 1 a.m., he said. The Red Cross was called to provide assistance to the two tenants.

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