OTISFIELD — A quick-thinking Norway man may have saved an 1840s farmhouse from burning to the ground Tuesday afternoon.
Firefighters from 10 towns in Oxford and Cumberland counties rushed to the scene at 998 Bolsters Mills Road, within sight of Bolsters Mills Village, just after 3 p.m. when fire broke out in a chimney. The fire smoldered under a metal roof covering a shingled roof. Firefighters were able to contain the damage after tearing open the roof.
Homeowner Ronald Bracy escaped unharmed but an unidentified Norway firefighter was taken to Stephens Memorial Hopsital where he was treated for overexertion after helping tear back the metal roof, Norway fire Chief Dennis Yates said. The firefighter will be back on duty with no restrictions, he said.
Bracy was home alone at the time but unaware his house was on fire until a passing motorist alerted him. He said he started a fire in the stove several hours before and never saw any unusual smoke.
“I was just driving by and I thought that doesn’t look right,” said 21-year-old Nate Hill of Norway, who turned his car around to take a second look at smoke coming out of the chimney. He decided he needed to call the fire department and knock on the door.
The 2010 Oxford Hill Comprehensive High School graduate who works at the Wal-Mart distribution center in Lewiston said Bracy answered the door unaware of the fire.
Hill suggested they try to get what they could safely out of the house.
“‘We need to get what’s important to you,'” Hill said he told the startled homeowner.
As other neighbors and passing motorists, such as John Ferry of Paris, stopped to help, they retrieved dozens of items ranging from tables to chairs, rugs and paintings before firefighters made them stop.
Much of the furniture was made by Bracy, who owns Pride Farm Furniture Makers Inc. of Falmouth.
“They just came by and started doing this neighborly thing. It was pretty amazing,” Bracy said. “I was blank. I grabbed my wife’s Bible.”
Bracy’s wife, Patricia, was not home at the time but rushed to the scene from her workplace in Auburn.
“I’m just glad I turned around,” Hill said. “I’m glad he’s (Bracy) OK.”
Firefighters from Otisfield, Oxford, Norway, Paris, Harrison, Bridgton, Raymond, Casco, Naples and Poland were called out, Oxford fire Chief Scott Hunter said.
There was extensive damage to two upstairs bathrooms and the roof because they had to be torn up to get to the flames in the 2½-story farmhouse, he said.
The downstairs had water damage but the house, which has an attached ell and barn, is structurally sound, Hunter said, and the owners have insurance on the property. He estimated damage at between $30,000 and $40,000.
Yates, who was one of the first firefighters on the scene, said he saw a lot of heat coming from the house when he arrived. “Everyone worked well together. It was a good stop,” he said.
An investigator for the Office of the State Fire Marshall in expected to visit the scene Wednesday morning, Hunter said.
ldixon@sunjournal.com
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- Nate Hill of Norway, center, carries pie tins from the home of Ronald and Patricia Bracy of Bolsters Mills Road in Otisfield on Tuesday afternoon. Hill, who discovered the chimney fire in the 1840s farmhouse as he was driving by, was joined by neighbors and other passers-by in helping save some of the contents from being damaged.
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- Firefighters cut a hole around the chimney of Ronald and Patricia Bracy’s 1840s farmhouse at 998 Bolsters Mills Road in Otisfield on Tuesday afternoon. A suspected chimney fire caused an estimated $30,000 to $40,000 damage to upstairs rooms and the roof, Oxford fire Chief Scott Hunter said.
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- Ronald Bracy, right, watches firefighters on the roof of his home at 998 Bolsters Mills Road as they contain a chimney fire Tuesday afternoon.
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- An unidentified Norway firefighter is taken to a PACE ambulance after he suffered from overexertion while tearing metal roofing off a burning farmhouse on Bolsters Mills Road in Otisfield on Tuesday afternoon, according to Norway fire Chief Dennis Yates.
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- Deputy Chief Jon Longley of the Paris Fire Department cuts a hole in the metal roof of Ronald and Patricia Bracy’s farmhouse in Otisfield to vent heat from a chimney fire Tuesday afternoon.
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- Smoke pours from the roof of Ronald and Patricia Bracy’s farmhouse on Bolsters Mills Road in Otisfield on Tuesday afternoon. Firefighters from 10 towns were called to extinguish the fire that started in a chimney, Oxford fire Chief Scott Hunter said. Damage to the 1840s home was mostly to the roof and upstairs bathrooms, he said.
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