LEWISTON — An air conditioner went up in flames Thursday afternoon starting a fire and sending tenants of a three-story apartment house scurrying for safety.

The blaze at 164 Pine St. started when the air conditioner caught fire at about 6 p.m. in a third-floor window.

Several tenants of the apartment house, at the corner of Pine and Shawmut streets, smelled smoke and called the fire station. By the time crews arrived, the air conditioner was fully ablaze and thick, dark smoke was pouring out of the third-floor window.

Police and fire crews cleared at least a dozen people from the building. There were no reports of injury.

Neighbors said the third-floor tenant had just come home with the air conditioner that day. They suspected that the device was either faulty or that it had shorted out.

Lewiston fire inspectors were expected to investigate.

Police shut down a section of Pine Street to traffic as fire crews battled the flames. Firefighters attempted to extinguish the fire from inside the apartment.

Ultimately, a ladder truck positioned a hose outside the window and blasted the air conditioner with water, subduing the flames and knocking the device out of the window.

Most tenants were able to return back to their apartments. Fire crews were blowing smoke out of the third-floor apartment as their investigation got underway.

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