Update: Dec. 31, 2024 

APPLETON — A woman who was burned around the time of a house on Appleton Ridge Road remains in the hospital at this time. The woman was initially brought to Pen Bay Medical Center, in Rockport. However, due to the extent of her injuries, she was then relocated to Maine Medical Center, in Portland.

At the time of the fire, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, Maine’s emergency transport helicopter, LifeFlight, was grounded due to the weather.

Very soon after locating the fire, firefighters contacted the Fire Marshal’s Office, and an investigation began. That investigation continues, according to an FMO news release, and “it appears accidental and involves the wood stove,” the release said.

APPLETON — A resident was able to make her way to a nearby house, tell the neighbor that she needed an ambulance and that her house was on fire, but with no ability to provide further details, responding firefighters were left searching for that possible structure on their own.

Sunday evening, Dec. 29, 2024, after the neighbor called 911 just prior to 6:10 p.m., and as Union Ambulance personnel and a Knox County deputy tended to the woman at the neighbor’s house, fire trucks crept cautiously along the Appleton Ridge Road, in Appleton, scanning through the darkness, the drizzle, and fog banks so thick at times that visibility was reduced to mere feet beyond the headlights. Eventually, they located a structure fire at a house set back from the road at 2036 Appleton Ridge Road. The distance from one of the houses to the other, according to the internet, is an approximate 3 minute walk, with a couple other houses standing in between.

Deputies stayed at the fire scene and the Fire Marshal’s Office was asked to come, which is protocol when an injury is suffered at a fire.

As of 10 p.m., the majority of firefighters were still on scene. Responding units included Appleton, Union, Hope, Montville, Washington, and Liberty fire departments, along with the Union Ambulance that transported the patient, and a second Union Ambulance that staged near the fire. 

All units were back at their home stations by midnight.

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com