ROCKLAND — Rockland firefighters were called to a fire in a second floor apartment at 385-387 Main St., of the Thorndike Building in downtown Rockland just before 5:30 p.m., Monday, Jan. 19. 

The tenant had smelled smoke, saw fire in the wall, tried to put it out with a fire extinguisher, was unsuccessful, and evacuated the apartment before calling 911, according to Interim Fire Chief Adam Miceli.

When the Rockland firefighters arrived, the building was being evacuated.  

Firefighters found heavy smoke on the second floor.  Upon entering Room 222, they found a sprinkler had contained the fire in the wall, just in that apartment. 

On the outside of the wall, the fire was still burning up the wall. Firefighters were able to extinguish that, containing the fire to a small area in that single apartment. 

Chief Miceli said that the tenant of apartment is the only one to be displaced.

The business below, Lake Side Printing Company, sustained water damage.

Rockland firefighters will continue to investigate how the fire started in the area of the wall, however, the cause did not appear suspicious, according to Miceli. The Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office, along with the Rockland code enforcement officer, later determined the cause of fire was “accidental in nature, caused by ‘hot work’ being performed on the adjacent roof,” according to the code officer’s report.

Before allowing tenants back into the building, Rockland Fire Department asked for assistance from Thomaston Fire Department in the cleanup. 

”We had a lot of smoke on the second and third floor, and so before we let everyone back into the apartments, we wanted to try to move the smoke out,” said Miceli. “So we got Thomaston to come with extra large fans so we could ventilate the whole space.” 

This call was a second alarm assignment for Rockland Fire Department.  All of Rockland units, along with Thomaston’s ladder truck, were called to the scene. There were 15 Rockland fire fighters on scene, which was cleared at 7:37 p.m.