PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – It could take fire investigators days to determine what caused an intense fire that ripped through a two-apartment house near the University of Southern Maine, as officials worked to identify the five people who were killed.
Portland Fire Chief Jerry LaMoria said the investigation was in a preliminary stage and it could take several days before officials know how the state’s deadliest fire in three decades started. Investigators will be looking to see if there were any code violations at the 94-year-old house.
State fire marshal’s spokesman Steve McCausland said Sunday most, if not all, the residents were USM students, but he said there was no indication that students were killed in the fire.
Two bodies were found on the second floor and three on the third floor. Everyone who had been in the house was accounted for, officials said.
The one person critically injured in the fire was identified as 29-year-old Steven Summers of Rockland. McCausland said Summers was visiting friends at the house when the fire broke out Saturday morning following a Halloween party the night before. Summers was in Massachusetts General Hospital on Sunday, where he was being treated for severe burns. There were reports that he jumped out of a second-story window to escape the flames.