LINCOLNVILLE — The residents of a house in Lincolnville Center were out of town, Sunday morning, March 8, when fire destroyed their Belfast home.

Under a full moon, just minutes before the one-o’clock hour skipped ahead to 3 o’clock for daylight savings, the house at 2022 Belfast Road (Route 52) became the third fire of the night reported to Knox Regional Communications Center. 

At 1:58 a.m., members of the Hope Fire Department returned to the gear that they’d only climbed out of a few hours early after assisting with two unrelated fires in Union. This time, however, Hope gathered with their other mutual aid pact, which included Lincolnville, Camden, and Northport. 

Initial responders to the Lincolnville home of Ben and Amy Watts arrived to find the entire front end of the house fully engulfed, as well a live power line lying fully across the roadway after the line’s connection with the house burned away.

Those firefighters used their Lincolnville Engine 1 to take a tack on the fire to get it knocked down, according to Lincolnville Fire Chief Don Fullington III. They then relied on mutual aid to help extinguish the fire in full. 

Though a cause of the fire could not be determined disctinctly, Fullington stated a belief that, based on the location of the fire, a pellet stove was involved.

As a result of a telephone conversation with the Fire Marshal’s Office, on-scene involvement by an investigator was ruled unnecessary at this time, according to Fullington.

Two cats were unaccounted for after the fire began.

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com