SWANVILLE - Twelve hours after tending the smoldering remains of a house fire on Chandler Road, Belfast firefighters were back in Swanville to put out a blaze in a mobile home.

Fire Chief Jim Richards said Belfast got the call just before 9:30 p.m., Tuesday. Firefighters reached the home at 433 Oak Hill Road within 10 minutes, he said, but it was already fully ablaze.

Richards said the owner, Jeri Gay, got out of the house safely. “I guess she could smell smoke,” Richards said. “Somewhere in the area of the bathroom, she thought.” Richards said he did not know the cause.

Tankers from Morrill and Waldo came to the scene. Richards said around 20 men were involved in fighting the fire over the course of three hours. In the end, he said the house was destroyed.

It was the fourth residential fire in the last week. A house owned by a well-known Brooks family burned to the ground on Feb. 11. On Feb. 15, State Police reported that a small fire had been set at the Frankfort mobile home where a 65-year-old man was found dead.  On Feb. 16, firefighters from eight towns spent the better part of the night trying to keep a house fire in Swanville from spreading to an adjacent barn. 

Asked if there was any logic to the rash of fires, Richards said the cold weather keeping heating systems working overtime might be a factor.
 

Woodstove ashes ignite shed in Searsport

At the same time that Richards and company were putting out the mobile home fire in Swanville, Searsport firefighters were working to extinguish a burning shed at 108 Old County Road.

Fire Chief Andy Webster said improper disposal of woodstove ashes caused the fire in the 15-by-20-foot workshop building. The fire did not spread to a house on the property. The shed was unoccupied and no one was injured in the fire.

Contact Ethan Andrews at: news@penbaypilot.com