Two homes that were next door to each other in Stockton Springs were coincidentally destroyed in separate fires on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. No one was injured, and local fire officials said both cases were accidents.
The fire at 4:15 p.m. Sunday destroyed a camper-style trailer on Cross Lane that was being used as a residence. A second blaze reported at around 8 a.m. on Monday tore through a small home several hundred feet away on the same side of the street.
In both cases, the fires appeared to have started in chimneys that were venting smoke from wood stoves, according to Stockton Springs Fire Chief Vern Thompson. They did not appear suspicious, and the state fire marshal’s office will not be investigating them.
“They’re just trying to keep warm for the winter,” Thompson said. “It was all accidental.”
A man at the site of the fire on Monday, Raymond Pomeroy Sr., said his daughter had been living in the trailer that burned on Sunday.
Pomeroy identified the owner of the home that burned on Monday as Scott Brown and said it had been rented out.
Fire officials didn’t know the street numbers for each property, but both Pomeroy and Brown own properties at 28 Cross Ln., according to local tax records.
Firefighters from Prospect, Searsport, and Stockton Springs responded to the fire on Monday morning.