Theresa Cote refers to her home as “the one that’s left.”
For hours Monday, the 88-year-old woman sat in a plastic chair across Blake Street. She watched the people flee. She watched the firefighters battle. And she watched as fire burned one apartment house after another. Buildings to the rear and to one side of her building were engulfed and consumed.
“When I got here, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh. That’s my house,'” she said.
She’d been working.
Though she could have retired decades ago, Cote has spent the past 23 years at Paine Products Inc. in Auburn, where she serves as an organizer making pillows, draft stops and other items.
When she stopped at a store on the way home to buy a lottery ticket, she noticed the plume of smoke rising from her neighborhood.
“I thought at first it was the church,” she said.
As she drove closer, she saw the flames coming from neighboring buildings.
Cote has owned her building at 174 Bates St. for 58 years, renting out a pair of downstairs apartments while living upstairs.
When she reached her home, she tried to get inside to get her cat, Heidi, but firefighters kept her out.
She resigned herself to her chair across the street. She watched and she worried. Neighbors and friends appeared all evening, hugging her and asking if she needed help.
She prayed.
“It seemed to me that there was fire all over the roof of my house,” she said. “I never thought they could save it, but they did.”
She knew the house would survive when firefighters appeared on the roof, hosing it down to protect it against the heat, flames and sparks coming from neighboring buildings only feet away .
“That’s the good Lord that’s helping me,” she said. “For sure, it was a miracle.”
Another miracle came at 5 a.m. Tuesday, when she finally made her way into her apartment and saw Heidi.
“My cat was right there meeting me at the door,” she said.
dhartill@sunjournal.com
More coverage of the Bartlett Street fire:
- Another 12-year-old accused of setting a fire in Lewiston
- About 50 people seek shelter at Lewiston High School
- Downtown residents ask, ‘Where are the parents?’
Stories from the Blake Street fire:
- Mother of week-old baby homeless, hopeful after Monday’s devastating fire
- Humane society opens doors, arms for fire’s furry victims
- Hours after the fire, woman’s cat is rescued; she always believed he’d be OK
Helping the victims:
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