LINCOLNVILLE — A family that had just arrived from New York for a vacation on Penobscot Bay awoke to the sound of fire alarms blaring and their rental house rapidly filling with smoke.

Soon after midnight Aug. 17, Lincolnville and Camden firefighters responded to the call at 68 McKay Road, a home tucked down on a narrow dirt road alongside Lincolnville Beach.

When first responders arrived, the family had evacuated, and the smoke was pouring from a bedroom.

According to Assistant Fire Chief Peter Rollins, a lighted clip-on lamp on the table next to a bed had dropped onto a mattress. There, its heat ignited the bedding.

“An hour later, they woke up to the smoke alarms going off throughout the house,” he said.

The four evacuated the home, and when Rollins and Camden Fire Chief Chris Farley arrived, they pulled the smoldering mattress from the house, whereupon fire ignited inside the coils.

Lincolnville firefighters doused the fire and then ventilated the house with smoke ejectors, while Camden and Northport firefighters, responding to the mutual aid call, returned to their towns.

“Any light bulb you put up against something is dangerous,” said Rollins. “We got lucky. It could have been a lot worse.”

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