Area firefighters respond to fixture fire at Pioneer Motel
No one was hurt in a fire late Saturday afternoon in a room at Pioneer Motel on Route 1, Edgecomb Fire Chief Roy Potter said at the scene. According to Potter, the room’s guest Dave Luby of Mooers Forks, New York, and the motel’s owner Jim Sauvie, it apparently started in a bathroom exhaust fan-light fixture.
Edgecomb, Boothbay, Wiscasset and Newcastle firefighters responded to the scene, Potter said.
Luby said he was in the room having a cheese and beef sandwich he’d gotten in Newcastle what he heard “a poof” and went into the bathroom, where he found the grid on the floor and flames in the fan area. He threw several coffee cups of water onto the fire, then, unhurt, headed to the office to report the fire, Luby said.
Sauvie said he and others finished putting out the fire with a garden hose.
Firefighters worked in and outside the building where the room is located, one of a set of buildings at the motel. Potter said the attic had smoke and firefighters had to put out some hot spots in the room where the fire started, but damage was minimal and confined to two rooms. Some wiring apparently shorted out in the area of the fixture, Potter said.
Sauvie, who bought the motel in 2001, said that building dates to the 1940s and was completely renovated in 2003. Insulation helped prevent the fire from spreading, Potter said.
Except for the affected area, the motel was all set to remain open uninterrupted, Potter said. The motel was fully booked for Labor Day weekend, Sauvie said.
Luby, in Maine for an event at Owl’s Head Transportation Museum, said this was his fourth stay at the motel. He added, “The owners and operators are very good people.”
Potter was in Whitefield when the report came in. The responding departments did awesome, he said. “This was just a classic example of the excellent mutual aid we have.”
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