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Twenty-one University of Maine students were displaced after a Saturday evening fire at the Stillwater Village Apartments, according to a university spokesman.
The blaze left fire damage in three units and smoke damage in nine more, according to Orono Fire Lt. Scott Luciano.
Luciano said a fire started in a ground-floor unit of one of the apartments and spread up the building’s back-side. Most of the units housed two to three occupants, he said.
Two firefighters were injured and treated at the scene, according to Luciano. One suffered a minor hand injury and the other an “exertion injury.”
Sunday afternoon, UMaine spokesman Joe Carr said no students were injured in the fire.
“The university has made housing and dining services available to those students and we’ll work with them to get textbooks replaced as necessary,” Carr said, adding that other academic items such as laptops could also be replaced.
Carr said he didn’t know how many students have taken the university up on the offer.
The University of Maine Police Department was called to the fire for an agency assist at 6:15 p.m. Greater Bangor Emergency Radio reported the fire via Twitter before 7 p.m. By 8:30 p.m., the fire was contained by units from the Orono, Old Town and Bangor fire departments. The University Volunteer Ambulance Corps also responded.
Luciano said his department, along with the Orono Police Department, is investigating the fire’s cause, with the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office scheduled to visit the scene Monday.
In March, a fire at the same complex severely damaged two units, leaving as many as 16 UMaine students homeless.
On Monday, Carr raised the number of displaced students to 23. Lt. Tim York of the Office of the Maine State Fire Marshal determined the fire was caused by a faulty hair dryer in a first-floor apartment. He has labeled the fire an accident.
