March 29, 2024
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Hampden fire damages former tool foundry

HAMPDEN – Fire investigators determined that a pump motor supplying fuel to overhead furnaces at a former tool manufacturing foundry-turned storage building burned out Monday morning, igniting a fire that Hampden officials said could have been a lot worse.

Despite conditions made more difficult by the freezing temperatures, firefighters managed to contain the fire to a rear section of the storage building, said Hampden Fire Department Deputy Chief Mike Andersen. The building, which formally housed ax manufacturer Snow & Nealley, had been secured and it was difficult to get inside, forcing firefighters to break doors, he said.

Frigid temperatures hampered efforts to put out the early morning fire at the building on Route 1A, near the Bangor city line. The severe cold froze water lines, hydrants and even a tanker, as Hampden brought in support from Bangor, Brewer and Newburgh to assist.

“If you shut it [the water] down for just a second, it was frozen,” Andersen said about the difficult conditions. No injuries were reported.

The first hydrant firefighters tapped froze, prompting them to use a hydrant farther up the road. A second hydrant froze and Andersen said Hampden’s tanker had to return to the station to thaw after the cold froze access to the water.

Newburgh had a tanker on scene to maintain the flow of water needed by firefighters, while Winterport firefighters backed up Hampden at the Hampden fire station.

Firefighters contained the fire at 6:32 a.m., about an hour after the first firefighters were called out. But it took investigators from Hampden and the state Fire Marshal’s Office most of the day to determine a cause for the fire.

Andersen said that furnaces in the building had been running steadily because of the cold and that one pump motor burned up, igniting a nearby work bench and other materials. Damaged in the fire were a motorcycle, a kit helicopter and a section of the building itself.

Andersen said that he didn’t think the building’s owner, Wendell Sproul, had insurance on the building.


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