CAMDEN — Camden firefighters responded to two incidents over the past several days: One smoky room, and a garage mishap.

Saturday evening, at 7:45 p.m., Knox County Regional Communications Center called Camden Fire Department, as well as mutual aid, to 14 Bay View Landing, home of the Grand Harbor Inn, for the report of a smoke-filled room

Inn staff had apparently entered one of the guest rooms in the evening for turn-down service and discovered it full of dark smoke. The room was on the second floor on the north-facing side of the building, over the public landing parking lot.

They closed the door, and premises were evacuated, said Camden Fire Chief Chris Farley.

Upon arrival, firefighters found the smoke had diminished somewhat. They traced the source of the smoke to the heating and ventilation system.

The room’s air-conditioning unit was flush-mounted to the outside of the building, directly underneath the roof-mounted ductwork for Peter Ott’s, a restaurant that is on the ground floor of the inn below the guest rooms.

 The down-draft from the kitchen exhaust was pulled into the guest room of the inn via the air conditioner, causing smoke to collect indoors.

On July 15, firefighters and Camden police rushed to a home on Cedar Street where a homeowner drove a car through the back wall of his garage.

According to officials, the car, a Mercedes, was parked in the garage.  As the driver turned the ignition and then attempted to back out of the garage, his feet got entangled between the brake and gas pedals; instead of moving into reverse, he went forward into, and through, the garage wall.

A small bank of soil on the other side of the wall helped to stop the two-door sedan.

The homeowner suffered no injuries; the Mercedes a few scratches.

“Most of the damage was to the building,” said Farley.

Editorial Director Lynda Clancy can be reached at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657