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Fire destroys historic Woolwich home

Fire in Woolwich closes part of Route 1 for several hours Monday morning.

WOOLWICH (NEWS CENTER Maine) — Crews from multiple towns responded to a house fire on Hall Road in Woolwich Monday morning.

Woolwich Fire Department Deputy Chief Glenn Kirkpatrick said at the height of the fire between 5:00 and 5:30AM, about 15 area departments were called to respond. The two homeowners of 34 Hall Road in Woolwich and their dog made it out safely and called the fire in just before 5AM, but the flames quickly engulfed the house. Kirkpatrick said the three story home is a complete loss.

A portion of Route 1 was closed down for a few hours while crews tried to feed a water source to the their trucks that Kirkpatrick said had to be carefully lined up in order to fit on the narrow residential street. However, crews eventually discovered they could feed a water line underneath the road through a pedestrian tunnel and reopened the roadway.

Kirkpatrick said the fire spread through the home very quickly and forced the firefighters to only attack the blaze from the outside.

"The heat was so intense, and flying debris," the Deputy Chief said. "I've been doing this for a long time, and that was pretty wild there for a while."

On their Facebook page, the Woolwich Historical Society recently featured a photograph of the home when it was used as an event hall at the turn of the 20th century. The description in the post said, "Sebenoa Hall, located (still) on the Hall Road - located convenient to the People's Ferry Co., which arranged special trips so Bath folks could attend the fairs, suppers, dances & special events that were held here - sold to a private party about 1947 (photo courtesy of Arlene Whitney)."

Kirkpatrick said he expects firefighters to remain on scene all of Monday to put out hot spots and prevent the rubble from reigniting. He said investigators from the State Fire Marshal's Office are expected on scene Monday afternoon.

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