Fire displaces three Houlton families

  HOULTON, Maine – Smoke billowed from the windows of an apartment building on 8 Maple Street last week as a house fire blazed for 45 minutes, displacing three local families over the fourth of July weekend.
    The fire started on the second floor of the building and was caused by an electrical malfunction with an extension cord according to Houlton fire chief Milton Cone
. The incident caused fire damage to two rooms on the second floor, as well as smoke and water damage to the entire building.
No flames were visible from outside the building, but smoke quickly rushed out of the windows and filled the air surrounding Katahdin Trust Company on the corner of North and Maple streets.
The heat and smoke inside the house, however, were not the only battle of the day for firefighters at the scene. The hot mid-day July sun beat down on the day’s rescuers, who were weighted down by their massive suits, which weigh roughly 50 pounds, as temperatures climbed into the 80s.
The extremely humid day led to some equally exhausted firemen, who were rapidly coming in and out of the house, taking shifts to cool down.
Spectators standing in the bank parking lot watched as men walked briskly out of the house, meanwhile shedding their masks and air packs, and replacing them with chilled bottles of water, which is stored on the fire trucks.
“We always rehab the fire fighters … when they come out of the building we usually have them go into the ambulance, strip down with the air conditioning and drink a bottle of water, before they can go back in,” explained Cone.
Donald Mooers, the owner of the building, had provided working fire-alarms on each floor of the building, but batteries had been removed and wires disconnected, rendering the alarms useless. Cone stressed the importance of working fire alarms on each floor of a house, and insisted on responsible use of electrical cords in homes.
“When we have the temperatures elevating during this time of the year and people are running fans, air conditioners … we want to make sure they are using an approved extension cord, and that it is not overloaded. You should never use an extension cord that is lighter than the cord of the appliance you are plugging into,” Cone warned.