Assistant Fire Chief In Bangor, Maine Credits Quick Calls To 911 For Rapid Response Extinguishing Apartment Fire

It was just after 2 PM on Wednesday when Bangor Firefighters received reports that a blaze had broken out in the Cedarwoods Apartment complex on Ohio Street.

Assistant Fire Chief Chad Bean says firefighters were at the scene within 4 minutes of receiving the call.

"We went to what's called an 'all hands' assignment, which essentially brings in all the firefighters from Bangor as well as the Air National Guard fire department, which sends an engine with four people. Then we have Brewer and Orono come and cover the Downtown station for us for any other calls that may happen while that's going on. "

"There had been some construction work going on on the first floor with some sautering of some pipes and in the process of doing that, by heating up some pipes with their torches, it actually ignited some materials in the walls and caught what's called a 'pipe chase' which is basically a void that goes, in this case from the first floor all the way to the third floor. So we had extension basically all the way up through the third floor in the walls of that 24-unit apartment building."

Bean says firefighters were able to extinguish the fire within an hour or so.

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"We worked on evacuating all the residents. We had hose lines on every floor. We were opening up the walls and exposing all those hotspots and fire, and getting those taken care of. We were able to rescue a couple of cats from some apartments in the building."

With this being a 24-unit complex, with other multi-unit facilities very close to this structure, the potential for a fire to spread quickly was definitely a reality. Thankfully, Bean said the quick response helped firefighters to contain the damage to a fairly concentrated area.

"There were about 3 units that were ultimately affected by this. One of them was vacant. The other unit, the property management company of that facility, was able to find a home for those folks to relocate to this evening. And then one of the other units, we ended up utilizing the Red Cross to be able to get them some shelter and housing for a couple of days. "

Bean says quick action by those on site, and monitored fire alarms made all the difference in how this fire ultimately ended.

"The biggest takeaway from this was early activation of 911. So not only did the construction workers utilize 911 very quickly, and get us on the way, but that facility also has a monitored fire alarm system, so as they're taking calls at the dispatch from 911, they're also taking calls from the fire alarm system saying 'we have alarms going off at 818 Ohio Street on two different floors,' so everything really lined up pretty well for this to be a successful incident, as successful as it can be, I guess. So that's the takeaway message: call 911 early so we can get there and get things taken care of as quickly as possible."

No one was injured during Wednesday's incident.