Eight firefighters, emergency medical personnel and lumber mill workers who were injured Friday in a fire and explosion at Robbins Lumber in Searsmont remain in Boston and Portland hospitals, while the four others have been released.
Two members of Searsmont’s fire department, Chief James Ames and Assistant Chief Wayne Woodbury, were injured in the fire, which began in an area of the mill where wood shavings are packed in plastic bags and then spread to a sawdust silo, which then exploded. Woodbury remains hospitalized at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center while Ames was released, state officials said Monday.
Sarah Tompkins, Searsmont’s Emergency Medical Services chief, is hospitalized at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center. Tompkins is co-owner of Fine Line Farm in Searsmont. Her partner, Hubert McCabe, is a firefighter and was a select board member until Monday morning but resigned “for obvious reasons,” Pete Milinazzo, a select board member, said Monday afternoon.
Liliane Robbins, a member of the town’s EMS department and a member of the Robbins family, which owns the lumber yard, also was injured and is getting treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, according to state officials.
On Monday, Robbins Lumber announced in a statement that two other members of the Robbins family, Jim Robbins and Alden Robbins, who are owners of the mill, are also being treated at Massachusetts General Hospital’s burn center, the statement said.
The hospital said in a statement on Monday afternoon that the three patients it has from the Searsmont fire are in critical condition.
Thomas Wolfe, a mill employee, is still hospitalized at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center in Portland, according to state officials. One other worker, John Ward, was treated and released.
“They have a long road to recovery ahead, but they are in the very best hands, and we look forward to their return,” the company said in a statement.
Alden Robbins is president of Georges River Energy, which operates a biomass powerplant that burns low quality wood to power the sawmill at Robbins Lumber.
Firefighter Katherine Paige, a member of the Belmont and Northport fire departments, is being treated for severe burns at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center, according to the department of public safety. She is still on a breathing tube, according to a post from her husband Paul Paige from Sunday. Paul Paige said his wife is responding to his voice with nods and shrugs. She will need several surgeries and skin grafts and will be in the burn unit for over a month, he wrote.
Jacob Spaulding, a firefighter from Montville was also injured in the fire, remains hospitalized at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center where he is on a ventilator according to an update from a family member posted on Facebook Monday afternoon.
Spaulding is expected to survive, though he faces “a long and challenging road to recovery,” according to a fundraising page organized on his behalf.
Clifton “Prent” Marriner, Appleton’s fire chief, suffered second degree burns in the fire and was released on Sunday afternoon, according to the Midcoast Villager.
He has limited use of his hands and does not know how long the healing process will take, but he intends to be back on the job, he told the Villager.
Twenty-year-old Aaron Heald, a Lincolnville firefighter, has also been released from the hospital after suffering burns to his hands.
As the victims try to heal, plans are being made for where to hold a funeral for Andrew Cross, 27, of Morrill, the firefighter who died in Friday’s explosion. The town is still trying to find a venue large enough to accommodate the expected crowd.
At the Morrill Fire Department on Friday, a helmet and pair of boots stood before dozens of bouquets of flowers, a tribute to Cross.
A deer antler representing his love for hunting was placed near the boots, along with a box for loved ones to contribute photos and mementos. On the top of the box was written, “We love you bub.”
“The flowers speak well of what people thought of him in town,” said Patrick Scribner, who was Searsmont’s fire chief for 13 years and served on it for three decades before retiring three years ago.
“He was a big part of this town,” he said.
Scribner said that Cross was killed when a silo that stored wood shavings blew up. The circumstances leading up to the explosion weren’t entirely clear, he said.
“We don’t know what happened, we just know it blew up,” he said.
Last night he went to a briefing attended by about 55 people who had been at the incident. He learned that several members of the Lincolnville Fire Department were closest to the explosion and pulled most of the people who survived out of harm’s way.
“Apparently no one found Andrew,” Scribner said.
His body was found later in the afternoon.
Cross, who also worked second shift at Bath Iron Works, also drove a plow truck and was always available to lend a hand, even on his days off, said Scribner.
“He was a big up-and-coming part of our department,” Scribner said.
State and federal officials are still investigating the fire and silo explosion.
