Firefighters from three departments helped put out fires that started in a garage but spread to the main house and a neighbor’s garage amid high winds Sunday.
The Fort Fairfield Fire Department initially were answering a call about a garage fire shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday at 21 Currier Street, said firefighter Darryl Doughty.
By the time crews arrived, however, the garage, owned by Frank Nelson, was fully engulfed and flames had spread to the main house, a shed and a neighbor’s garage, Doughty said.
The wind “was pretty bad,” and likely responsible for the fire spreading, he said.
With reinforcement from the Caribou and Presque Isle fire departments, the fires were extinguished in a little bit more than an hour, Doughty said.
It is not clear how the fire started and it remains under investigation, the firefighter said.
The garage where the fire started was completely lost to the fire, as was the shed, Doughty said.
The main home and the neighbor’s garage were significantly damaged but not completely destroyed. The house had exterior damage — the vinyl siding melted — but it was spared interior damage, while the neighbor’s garage suffered exterior and some interior damage on the second story, Doughty said.
During the course of the blaze, an overhead door in one of the garages fell on a firefighter, who was taken to the hospital, examined and released that night, Doughty said.
