No one was hurt in a nighttime fire that claimed a vacant cape home on West Alna Road in Alna on Oct.21, Alna Fire Chief Mike Trask said.

An electrical malfunction ignited a wall in the back of the living room, Sgt. Kenneth Grimes of the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office said. Investigator Mary-Ann MacMaster of the Fire Marshal’s Office visited the scene Oct. 22. The fire was termed accidental, Grimes said.

“I’d say it’s going to be a total loss,” Trask said about the home, located near the Cross Road intersection.

Crews from Alna, Wiscasset, Newcastle, Whitefield and Jefferson fire departments put out the fire.

No one had been living at the home, built around the 1860s, its owner Brian Long said as firefighters worked.

Long grew up in the house. He said he had been renovating it since May in preparation to sell it; the home is insured, he said.

He was home asleep at another house nearby when someone knocked on the door and informed him of the fire.

The fire was reported shortly after 9:30 p.m. Trask said that when he arrived, flames had already broken through the roof and the home’s ell was fully involved in the fire.

The fire was under control within about 20 minutes, he said. It was the Alna Fire Department’s first time using the new fire truck’s foam system outside training. The system worked correctly, Trask said.

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office also responded to the scene. Part of West Alna Road was closed to traffic during the firefighting effort.