PRENTISS – A volunteer firefighter killed when the tanker truck he was driving rolled over on Monday had already seen the Prentiss sawmill fire and was returning to the scene with equipment he thought was needed when the accident occurred, witnesses said Wednesday.

Bill Sterling, brother-in-law of mill owner Jim Cole, said he heard some firefighters questioning whether the tanker truck Peter Beebe-Lawson was driving was needed to fight the fire and whether Beebe-Lawson was experienced enough to drive it.

But Sterling regards such thoughts as immaterial.

“He was the kind of guy who would help people,” Sterling said Wednesday. “He knew Jim. He knew Jim had helped him out and he wanted to help Jim out because that’s the kind of guy he was.”

As many as 1,000 people, including firefighters and firetrucks from as far away as Portland and possibly Massachusetts, are expected at 11 a.m. today at Beebe-Lawson’s funeral at St. James Roman Catholic Church in Kingman.

Bangor, East Millinocket, Hermon, Howland, Kingman, Lincoln, Portland, Scarborough, Stacyville and of course Springfield are among the paid and volunteer fire departments that have already promised to send representatives or color guards.

“We guessed it would be between 500 and 1,000 people there, but that’s just an off-the-wall thing,” said Lincoln Fire Department Deputy Chief Hervey Clay, who is also director of Clay’s Funeral Home of Lincoln, which is helping handle funeral arrangements. Several departments called the funeral home for directions, and more will likely just show up, he said.

“There’s going to be a huge turnout,” Clay said.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Lincoln Fire Lt. Frank Hammond said. “A fellow lost his life protecting others. That’s what we do. Nobody is supposed to die, but this fellow gave everything to protect somebody’s life and property.”

Every volunteer and paid fire department in Maine probably knows of the tragedy, and a majority – particularly those in Penobscot County – were informed directly via e-mail of the funeral, Hammond said.

Beebe-Lawson, 50, of Springfield, was coming out of a fairly sharp curve on his way back to the fire at Cole’s Shingle Mill on Mud Pond Road when he apparently lost control of the 3,500-gallon Freightliner tanker truck on Route 169 in Springfield at about 11:45 a.m.

The tanker went off the right side of the road before veering into pine trees on the road’s left side and landing on its passenger side. The truck’s sole occupant, Beebe-Lawson was pronounced dead at the scene.

The state police investigation of the accident is continuing. No cause has yet been determined, state police said. The state medical examiner’s office performed an autopsy on Beebe-Lawson, but results were not available Wednesday night.

Sterling, 45, lives adjacent to the fire scene. He said he saw Beebe-Lawson at the fire scene before the firefighter went back to Springfield to fetch the tanker truck. Beebe-Lawson was standing with Cole, and Sterling recognized him because they had met five or six times previously.

“He was a nice guy,” said Sterling, who worked for his brother-in-law at the mill. “He would come over here and get wood to burn in his stove. Jim would give him some of the wood we had left over.

“He said, ‘Hi,’ to me and Jimmy was talking to him. Jimmy goes ‘Ahhh, I always have bad luck. That’s the way my luck goes,'” Sterling said. “That’s when he took off and went there [to Springfield].”

The tragedy of Beebe-Lawson’s death – described by friends as an avid community volunteer, a devout Roman Catholic with several foster children who friends said was planning to open a private school with his wife, Selby – is compounded by the loss of the mill, Sterling said.

An overheated gasoline engine that powered a saw caused the fire at the one-story business, which made cedar shingles, state police said. The fire spread to two buildings and damaged a large array of vehicles and random equipment scattered amid the charred moonscape of remains.

The mill had been in business for 14 or 15 years. It occasionally employed three or four people, but usually just the Coles, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, and Sterling, according to Sterling.

The fire was still smoldering Wednesday. State Forest Service Ranger Josh Noyes and volunteer Charlie Willette came to the wreckage at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, their second visit in two days, to shovel down burning embers that occasionally flared.

Their greatest concern was fire reignition flaring into a forest fire, Noyes said.

“I don’t think it will go that far, but it’s something to be concerned about,” he said. “That sawdust pile could burn forever.”