MEXICO — Two simultaneous fire alarm calls at 6:30 p.m. Thursday sent Mexico and Rumford firefighters scrambling across town.
Mexico fire Chief Gary Wentzell said at the fire station afterward that one alarm involved a small fire at Mexico Laundromat & Dry Cleaning in the small plaza behind the fire station off Main Street. The other was reported as a possible chimney fire at 192 Back Kingdom Road.
Wentzell said a bearing in the motor of a clothes dryer “let go” at the laundromat and the dryer got hot enough to catch some clothes inside on fire. The clothing was removed and extinguished.
He said that he called for mutual-aid help from Rumford firefighters for the Back Kingdom Road address while heading there. They responded with a ladder truck that is shared between the two departments. Some of the Mexico firefighters at the laundromat then cleared the scene to assist at the other building.
Wentzell said that upon examining the chimney, firefighters saw it had “loose stuff” in it that was causing “a lot of sparks.”
He said it wasn’t a chimney fire, but the homeowner was understandably concerned.
“We dropped a bag of powder down it and that took care of it,” Wentzell said.
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