July 03--RUMFORD -- Unattended candles likely caused an apartment fire that sent a man and his two children to the hospital early Tuesday morning, fire officials said.
Firefighters responded to the fire at 82 Maine Avenue shortly before midnight. Once on scene, officials rescued the man and his two children from a third-floor porch.
"We got here and there was a father and his two young babies up on the back third floor porch that were trapped," Deputy Fire Chief Richard Coulombe said. "We got a ground ladder out back, got them down."
An initial investigation by the Office of the State Fire Marshal showed the blaze may have started when a tenant in another apartment left candles unattended, Coulombe said.
"Unattended candles caught the curtains on fire," Coulombe said. "I guess the occupant -- from what the fire marshal was telling me -- tried to put the fire out herself."
The third-floor family is believed to have suffered smoke inhalation, said Coulombe, who did not release the victims' names.
The blaze proved too strong to extinguish, Coulombe said, forcing firefighters to fight the fire defensively. Rumford firefighters were assisted by fire crews from Newry, Bethel, Andover, Dixfield, Mexico, Roxbury, Canton, and Peru.
By 9 a.m., firefighters had begun to demolish the building, which was a total loss. The structure housed a total of 11 apartment units, according to the town assessor's office. The building and property, valued at $80,200, are owned by Peter and Becky Robichaud of Carthage. Built in 1927, the building for years served as the Rumford Community Hospital, run by Dr. Eugene McCarty.
Representatives from the Red Cross and Salvation Army were on hand Tuesday morning to assist displaced tenants, who are staying at area motels. Friends and neighbors also assisted in the cleanup throughout the day Tuesday.
Timothy Fair, a neighbor whose property abuts 82 Maine Ave., described the blaze as fast moving and intense -- so hot that it warped the siding of another neighbor's house. Fair also described how he discovered the father and his children trapped on the third-floor porch next door.
"He was on the back porch and was screaming for help. I was like, 'Well, get out of there dude,'" Fair said. "He's like 'I can't. My house is on fire, my hallway is on fire.' He's like 'I got two kids up here.'"
Fair sought help from firemen as soon as they arrived, and he watched as the father and his children were pulled from the burning building just in time.
"As soon as they got them out, that thing went up, and then went across the top," Fair said, describing the path of the flames.
Some 12 hours after he watched that first rescue, Fair was nearly overcome with emotion as he saw a woman rescue a singed, shivering dog from the embers of the ruined building. The dog, a Pomeranian named Max, somehow survived the fire and the demolition that flattened the upper two floors of the building.
Tara Amburg, a friend of the dog's owner, found Max curled up on a bed as she salvaged personal items from the wreckage. Amburg's son and his father lived in the building.
"I happened to catch the glimpse of the dog on the bed and he was alive," Amburg said.
Earlier in the day, Amburg told the dog's owner that Max didn't make it out of the fire alive. By 2 p.m., Amburg was able to deliver some better news.
"She asked me about it earlier, if I heard the dogs were alive and made it out last night. I told her no, they didn't," Amburg said. "Then I happened to see him. She started crying on the phone."
Copyright 2012 - Sun Journal, Lewiston, Maine
