WALDOBORO – A homeowner of a fixer-upper in Waldoboro who was a few small projects away from completion after more than a year of renovation now must decide whether to start again.

Sunday, August 25, fire ripped through the Waldoboro home of Shane and Bonnie Sainio and their children, at 515 Feylers Corner Road. The family had been in residence for a couple of years, throughout the renovations, according to neighbors. They’d worked to restore a household that had fallen into disrepair after a former owner wasn’t able to maintain its upkeep.

For more than 2.5 hours, following the 1:53 p.m., Sunday, 911 call, firefighters from Waldoboro, Damariscotta, Union, Warren, Jefferson, and Bremen rushed water from an Old Augusta Road pond and hosed the flames bursting from the open spaces in the building’s walls.

Knowing from the start that additional water supply would be needed, Fire Chief Paul Smeltzer also requested the assistance of Friendship Fire Department, “because I knew that they had a tanker.”  

The house was a combination of separate additions, according to Smeltzer.

Each section had its own roof. At some point prior to the fire, one sheet of house-length metal roof was placed on top of the individual roofs. This construction method slowed the extinguishment on Sunday.

“Once the fire got up into the roof, it was burning between the multiple roofs,” he said. “With metal on the outside, and multiple roofs on the inside, it made it very difficult to get to the fire.”

Yet, according to a neighbor who’d seen the flames shortly after they began escaping from the interior, the house went up “surprisingly fast.”

Neighbor Bob Augustine and his wife were sitting in their house when Augustine heard a snapping sound. According to him, he first figured that the neighbor, who is an outdoorsman, was doing something in his backyard. But when Augustine’s wife mentioned smelling a campfire, Augustine disagreed. That wasn’t the smell of a usual campfire.

When firefighters arrived, the fire was most visible on the side of the house containing the kitchen, according to Smeltzer. However, he didn’t know where exactly, or even which level of the house the incident started.

“But, the fire was visible through the windows in that general area,” he said.

An investigator from the Maine Fire Marshal’s Office has been called.

The family was outside of the structure and accounted for by the time firefighters arrived.

More details will be added as they become available.

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com

WALDOBORO — Firefighters are on scene at house fire at Feyler’s Corner, in Waldoboro. Mutual aid has been called for assistance. Assisting Waldoboro are the departments of Union, Warren, Jefferson and Damariscotta.

This story will be updated when more details become available.