Overheated Wood Stove Blamed for Maine House Fire

An overheated wood stove is believed to have been the cause of a house fire in Robbinston, Maine that forced a woman, her grandson and two dogs to drop from a second-story window to escape the flames.

Fire Chief Robert Merrill said Norma Galligan and her grandson, who’s about 12, were upstairs in the home on Route 1 Monday night when they realized that the building was heating up and filling with smoke.

Merrill told the Bangor Daily News that Galligan, whose husband was at work, had to break an upstairs window to get the family to safety.

A passer-by reported the fire, but the chief said the house was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived a few minutes later.

He said it appears that an overheated wood stove was the cause of the fire.