Fire levels Houlton garage

  HOULTON, Maine — Fire officials say they will probably never know what started a fire that destroyed a two-car garage Sunday evening.
According to Houlton Fire Chief Milton Cone, the garage of Harold and Aimee Flewelling, who reside at 15 Watson Ave., was completely destroyed, making it difficult to determine a source. The fire was reported at 7:32 p.m. when the Flewelling’s son, Gaige, noticed flames coming from the unattached garage.
    Upon arrival, firefighters found the 20-foot-by-30-foot building completely involved. The garage was located about 20 feet from the Flewelling’s home, but was only four feet away from the neighbor’s garage. That garage, which is owned by Barrett Potter, received heat damage to the vinyl siding.
The fire department responded with its pumper, ladder truck and pumper/tanker, along with 24 firefighters.
“I was very pleased to see both the Flewelling family and the Potter family had exited their houses,” Cone said. “That tells me they had an escape plan in place and followed it, so we did not have to worry about that.”
Cone said another aspect that made combating the fire difficult was that the fire hydrant nearest to the building was damaged when fire fighters hooked up to it.
“We had an issue with the hydrant in that the set-off broke,” Cone said.
There were no vehicles inside the garage at the time of the incident. Cone said the last time the family knew someone had been inside the building was when Harold Flewelling left for work at 11 a.m. There was electricity going to the garage, but Cone said he could not speculate if that is what started the fire.
Among the items lost in the fire were a riding lawnmower, a new snow blower and two canoes that had been passed down through the family for generations, which were located in a storage area above the garage.