FRENCHVILLE, Maine — A Frenchville house fire took the lives of a dog and cat on Tuesday, Aug. 26, according to local fire chief Peter Parent.
Parent said the department was notified at 2 p.m. about the fire, which occurred on 279 Route 1, but the fire likely began early in the morning. He said it was an electrical fire that started on the first floor and slowly spread to the rest of the home. Nobody was at the house when the fire occurred.
A woman was driving by the home and saw smoke, so she drove to the town office to report the incident. The fire department is next to the town office, and Parent said it only took a couple minutes to arrive on the scene once they were notified.
“When we arrived, smoke was coming out of the eaves,” Parent said. “It was coming out of the chimney. It was coming out of the vent pipes. It was coming out everywhere.”
Fire departments in Madawaska, Fort Kent and St. Agatha provided assistance on the scene.
“It was a warm day with a good breeze,” Parent said. “So we knew that this was going to be a long project. We got done fighting the fire at about six o’clock.”
He said the home had an addition built, which made a formerly exterior wall an interior wall, and that this is where the electrical fire started.
“The fire was on the first floor, and then it traveled up to the second floor and into the attic,” he said.
Altogether, he said there were about 50 people on the scene helping to fight the Tuesday fire.
“We’d like to thank the surrounding fire departments for helping us,” Parent said.
