Firefighters in Maine managed to rescue a deaf man from his apartment just moments before the entire unit was engulfed in flames.
Fire teams were called to the scene at 4 Berwick Road in Berwick, Maine, around 3:48 a.m. on August 28. The building was an old house with five units inside.
“When we got there, the left side of the building was pretty much fully involved,” said Deputy Chief Bruce Plante of the Berwick Fire Department. “Everybody got out, but then they told us someone was still in the back apartment, so two of our firefighters went in. The individual was handicapped — he was deaf — and they had to go in and kick in the door and get him and the cat out.”
The rescued man reported no injuries, though another tenant, James Auger, was sent to Massachusetts General Hospital for burn treatments after attempting to put out the fire himself.
The fire reportedly started after a puppy knocked over a burning candle in Auger and his wife’s apartment on the first floor of the building. The couple reportedly tried to put water on the flames, but it spread too quickly for them to control.
“They grabbed the puppy and got out,” Deputy Chief Plante said.
By the time the fire department arrived on the scene, they had to resort to a “defensive” attack against the spreading flames. About 75 firefighters from 17 departments across two states were deployed to combat the fire, which took until about 8:30 a.m. to clear.
Candle fires were responsible for around 9,300 home fires between 2009 and 2013, resulting in 86 deaths, 827 injuries, and $374 million in damage. Authorities say that Auger’s injuries were the only human casualties; about six cats and one dog died in the fire.
The Red Cross will assist the five families displaced by the fire.