March 28, 2024
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Orland fire destroys ranch-style house

ORLAND – A well-timed telephone call and a smoke alarm alerted a woman that her house was on fire Saturday and she escaped without injury although her split-level ranch was destroyed, according to a fire official.

“We’re not certain of the cause yet [but] there’s nothing suspicious about it,” Robert Harriman, first captain of the Orland Volunteer Fire Department, said Sunday.

Harriman said the basic structure of the home survived the fire, but the interior was destroyed. “I don’t think they’re going to salvage much” of their furnishings or personal belongings, Harriman said.

The home on Upper Falls Road is owned by Thomas and Althea Grover. The couple was insured, Harriman said.

Althea Grover was napping at about 2:45 p.m. Saturday when she was awakened by a telephone call, Harriman said. She immediately heard the downstairs smoke alarm and rushed to a neighbor’s house to call the Fire Department.

Harriman said the smoke had not reached the upstairs smoke alarm when Grover got up to answer the phone, but “within minutes the house was filled with smoke.”

The Grovers could not be reached Sunday. They were guests at the Orland House bed and breakfast Saturday night and then left for a motel Sunday morning.

Harriman said 16 Orland volunteer firefighters, joined by about a dozen from Bucksport, got the fire under control within the first 10 minutes, but didn’t clear the scene until about 6:15 p.m. The Penobscot Fire Department also provided mutual aid by covering the Orland station during the fire.

A state fire investigator is scheduled to arrive Monday to try to determine the cause of the fire, Harriman said.


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