Investigation focuses on installation of new dryer, recent electrical panel work

UPDATE: Fire Marshal’s Office identifies teen who perished in Camden house fire; focuses on recent dryer installation

Fri, 02/26/2021 - 9:30am

    UPDATE, FEB. 26 — Lt. Troy Gardiner, with the Office of the Maine State Fire Marshal, said Feb. 26 that the person who died Feb. 25 in the Mount Battie home fire was Theodore Hedstrom, age 14.

    The investigation is ongoing, but the focus is on the lower level right side of the building, near the service panel.

    Lt. Gardiner, who is Assistant State Fire Marshal of the Investigations Division, said a dryer had been installed a week prior in the lower level of the finished basement, where Theodore was sleeping. 

    He was asleep, said Gardiner, and: “We don’t have any reason to believe that he was trying to get out or moved at all. We found him right where we were told he would be sleeping.”

    The two adults who were in the home as well, were transported to the hospital, and are currently at Maine Medical Center in Portland, he said. One adult is suffering from significant injuries, he said.

    Other family members were out back in another building, he said.

    “The two adults and the 14-year-old were the only ones in the house,” he said. “The other family members realize the house is on fire but no one else is inside the house at that point.”

    Lt. Gardiner said the fire is considered an accident.

    He said the investigation is continuing to focus on the dryer installation and recent work done to the service panel.


    UPDATE, CAMDEN — The body of a person who died in a horrific overnight fire at a Mount Battie Street home was recovered at 9:15 a.m., Feb. 25, and transported by Long Funeral Home to the state Medical Examiner’s Office in Augusta, said Camden Fire Chief Chris Farley.

    The identity of that person will be released by the Fire Marshal’s Office, he said.

    Mount Battie Street remains closed while five investigators from the Fire Marshal’s Office continues to determine the cause of the blaze.


    Camden Fire Department and approximately 45 mutual aid firefighters from Rockport, Hope and Lincolnville rushed to a house fire on Mt. Battie Street in Camden just after 1 a.m., Feb. 25. They were accompanied by multiple EMS crews from North East Mobile Health Services and Rockland Fire and EMS.

    The fire quickly and fully engulfed the home, as neighbors woke to cries for help from the residents.

    Four people were transported to Pen Bay Medical Center by ambulances. 

    “One transported one, and one transported three or four,” said Fire Chief Chris Farley. 

    Firefighters used primarily water to extinguish the house fire, as well as foam near the cars that had been parked in front the the house, their fuel lines burning and spreading gas down the street.

    The fire is under investigation by the Maine Fire Marshal’s Office. Investigators had arrived on scene soon after 3 a.m.


    Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657