Maine gas blast kills 1, hurts 8
Firefighter brothers, father-son team stricken when new building explodes
Townspeople are calling a firefighter who was killed and eight people who were injured Monday “heroes” after an apparent propane explosion leveled a new building in Farmington, Maine.
“I was at home about 3 miles away when I heard the explosion,” said Farmington Selectman H. Scott Landry. “It was a loud boom.”
The State Fire Marshal’s Office identified the firefighter who was killed as Farmington Fire Capt. Michael Bell, 68, a 30-year member of the department and the brother of Fire Chief Terry Bell.
“My wife and I are devastated,” Landry said. “Michael was a good friend, quiet, very humble. He grew up in a family of firefighters. I’m really going to miss him. It’s horrible. It leaves a big hole in our community.”
Life Enrichment Advancing People, a nonprofit that serves people with cognitive and intellectual disabilities, hadn’t yet finished moving into the building at 313 Farmington Falls Road when it exploded shortly after 8 a.m.
Injured in the blast were the chief, 62; Capt. Timothy D. Hardy, 40; Capt. Scott Baxter, 37; his father, firefighter Theodore Baxter, 64; firefighter Joseph Hastings, 24; and Deputy Fire Chief Clyde Ross, according to the State Fire Marshal’s Office. A NorthStar Ambulance employee also was injured, according to the fire department.
Ross was treated and released from Franklin Memorial Hospital, the State Fire Marshal’s Office said, but the other five firefighters were being treated at Maine Medical Center in Portland for serious injuries.
Larry Lord, 60, a LEAP maintenance worker who detected an odor of gas and helped evacuate the building, was flown to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston with severe injuries.
“We were just finishing getting people into their offices, but our staff followed the evacuation plan just in the nick of time,” said Darryl Wood, LEAP’s executive director. “Our maintenance guy and the firefighters are heroes. This could have been much worse. It looks like a bomb went off. All that’s left is a hole and debris.”
Renee Whitley, executive director of the nearby Franklin County Children’s Task Force, said she and her staff were in the middle of a meeting when the explosion occurred.
“The building shook, the lights flickered,” Whitley said.
Only five minutes before the blast, a school bus had picked up children in a driveway right beside the LEAP building, she said.
“All our hearts are broken today,” Whitley said. “We can’t think of anyone except the people affected by this. Some homes were destroyed; others were damaged. The building is completely flattened. Dust was falling in downtown Farmington,” a close-knit town of about 7,000 people.
The Children’s Task Force took in people whose homes were destroyed or damaged, the local Burger King fed first-responders, and an ice cream shop offered them free ice cream, said Kim Hilton, an administrative specialist who works in the admissions office at the University of Maine in Farmington.
Hilton said she was opening the office for the day when she heard a loud crash, and the building shook.
“Our first thought was that something had hit the building,” she said. “We lost power for a minute. I was just startled.”
The State Fire Marshal’s Office was on scene throughout the day and will be coordinating with the Maine State Police Incident Management Team, local police and fire officials, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives today to pinpoint the source of the explosion.