by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

An early morning house fire that started before 6 a.m. did significant damage to a Bucks Harbor, Machiasport home on Saturday, Oct. 8.  

Machiasport, Machias, East Machias, Marshfield, and Jonesboro/Roque Bluffs fire departments rendered mutual aid.

“There were no injuries, and the departments did a great job saving the structure,” said Machiasport Fire Chief Dave Nielsen. 

Charles Day and his family were in the process of moving into the property, locally known as the Huntley homestead, and Day was on site with two children when the fire began. He was woken by a loud noise and says he’s thankful he wasn’t out fishing this morning, as he often is on Saturday mornings. Day got the children out of the home and was also able to save the family's three dogs. 

“I just woke up to a big boom, the smoke was going through the house, and the bathroom wall was on fire,” said Day. “I went to turn on the water to put it out and we had no water pressure." 

The side of a Bucks Harbor home damaged by fire on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 8. Photo by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. The home did not use propane.

Marshfield Fire Chief Daniel Bowker said all the departments arrived quickly and Machias Engineer and Fire Department Lieutenant Brandon Merrill agreed.

Marshfield firefighter Shannon holds one of the cats rescued from the early morning house fire, while Machias Engineer and Fire Department Lieutenant Brandon Merrill pets the cat. Photo by Daniel Bowker

“We were able to save two cats,” said Bowker. 

One key reason the fire did not consume the whole home, said Bowker, was the ladder truck, enabling them to douse the roof of the home.

“I would say the ladder truck saved the structure,” said Bowker. “We were able to save pictures and a lot of their belongings, but they still lost a lot. It was a good save on the structure, but it has a lot of smoke damage.”

Firefighters pulled sheetrock out of the ceiling and off of the walls in order to extinguish the fire that had moved into the walls of the home, leaving firefighter masks like this one belonging to firefighter lieutenant Brandon Merrill coated in thick dust.  Photo by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Machiasport firefighter Mike Hinerman says all of the area fire departments could use more volunteers and younger volunteers. 

“Dave and I were the first two guys on the scene, and we were not going inside,” said Hinerman, citing the age of many local firefighters, many over the age of 70.