An apartment building fire Monday night that displaced 33 people on Munjoy Hill was caused by a faulty electric cooking stove, according to the Portland Fire Department.
The blaze began in the kitchen of a first-floor apartment at 6 Cumberland Ave. The building suffered heavy fire damage, but the smoke detectors alerted the other tenants and all 13 residents of the three-unit building escaped without injury.
When firefighters arrived on scene around 8 p.m., the flames had spread to three neighboring buildings – 10 Cumberland Ave. and 10 and 14 Merrill St. The 20 residents of those buildings were also displaced, though some might be able to return to their homes this week.
“Portland firefighters worked extremely hard to ensure the fire did not spread further to the adjacent buildings,” the fire department said in a news release. “There were no injuries to civilians or firefighters as a result of the fire.”
The American Red Cross was on scene Monday night to help the displaced residents.
Aly Finn, the disaster program manager for Cumberland County, said the organization helped residents find a place to stay, either in a hotel or with a friend or family member.
“We’re able to provide lodging, make sure they have a roof over their heads, that they have hot food and warm clothes,” Finn said.
The street was quiet Tuesday afternoon, but pedestrians and people in passing cars stopped to stare at the burned buildings. A light drizzle fell on the blackened siding, the yellow caution tape and the bicycles still chained to the porches of the empty buildings. Maintenance workers from Harris Properties, which owns the buildings involved in the fire, declined to comment. A phone call to the company was not returned.
Jennifer Breen, who lives in one of the affected buildings on Merrill Street, said she hopes to return to the apartment with her two sons this week. She stopped Tuesday afternoon to collect some of her belongings, clutching a phone charger as a friend waited in a nearby pickup truck. For now, the Red Cross has helped Breen and her family get a hotel room.
“I’m going to start trying to volunteer with the Red Cross when this is over,” Breen said.
The Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization has started an online fundraiser for the families. The GoFundMe page had collected $2,400 toward an $8,000 goal as of 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. In an email update, the neighborhood association also said the East End Community School is working to help children and families who may be in immediate need of food, clothes and other items.
Megan Doyle can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
mdoyle@pressherald.com Twitter: megan_e_doyle
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story