FARMINGTON, ME—A longtime firefighter is dead, and six firefighters, an emergency medical responder, and a LEAP Inc. maintenance worker were injured Monday during what is believed to have been a propane gas explosion at Life Enrichment Advancing People (LEAP) building, 313 Farmington Falls Road.
Capt. Michael Bell, 68, a 30-year veteran of the Farmington Fire Rescue Department, was killed in the incident, according to a release by Stephen McCausland, director of Maine of the Maine Department of Public Safety
He was the second firefighter this year in Maine to be killed in the line of duty.
A very preliminary investigation indicates the explosion was caused by propane gas, according to Police Chief Jack Peck Jr. He spoke at a press conference near the fire station on Farmington Falls Road.
Firefighters were called to scene at about 8:07 a.m. for a smell of propane. The explosion occurred minutes later, according to McCausland.
The two-story LEAP building and a new addition recently opened and was “flattened,” he wrote in the release.
Injuries to the victims include burns consistent with a blast, Peck said.
Fire Rescue Chief Terry Bell Sr., 62, the brother of Michael Bell, who has been with the department since 1977, was among the seriously injured, as was LEAP maintenance worker Larry Lord of Jay. They were both taken by LifeFlight to hospitals. The others who were injured were either taken by ground or flown to hospitals, Peck said.
The Bells are part of a firefighting family that included their father, the late Jack Bell who spent nearly 50 years on the department before he died at age 80 in 2009.
The Office of the Maine State Fire Marshal and Maine State Police are investigating the cause of the explosion reported just after 8:07 a.m.
Others who were injured are: Capt. Tim “TD” Hardy, 40, Capt. Scott Baxter, 37, and his father, firefighter, Theodore Baxter, 64, and firefighter, Joseph Hastings, 24, according to McCausland’s release.
Fire Rescue Deputy Chief Clyde Ross was also injured and treated and released from a Farmington hospital.
A procession of fire trucks was to take the fallen firefighter’s body on Monday afternoon to the Maine Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta.
Insulation, paperwork, wood and other items from the LEAP building landed on the road, Bjorn Memorial Park and on High Street.
State fire investigators were joined by fire investigators from ATF on the scene Monday. The two agencies will begin processing the scene Tuesday to try and pinpoint the source of the explosions. State police, local police, multiple fire departments, Farmington Public Works Department and Maine Department of Transportation also responded.
Emergency responders wore masks as the insulation and dust blew around the scene and streets. People heard the explosion from as far away as Hartford.
Mobile homes behind the building were damaged. A house on High Street had windows blown out.
The Farmington Fair closed for the day. Narrow Gauge Cinema announced its closing. A public prayer service is at 6 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on Middle Street which was to be followed at 7 p.m. by a candlelight service at Old South Congregational Church on Main Street, according to a post on Facebook.
(Editor's note: The following video contains profanity. Viewer discretion is advised.)
Gov. Janet Mills ordered flags at half-staff.
She will issue an additional flag lowering directive upon the release of funeral arrangement details for the deceased, according to a release.
Route 2 was to remain closed in Farmington until at least Tuesday evening. Traffic is being detoured to Route 156, according to a Maine DOT spokesman.
The death, injuries and explosion shocked the community.
“All of us are one big family,” Peck said. “We all know the fire chief. We all know the firefighter killed today. It affects us tremendously. We all feel for his family as well as the firefighter family. It affects us deeply.”
Franklin County Sheriff Scott Nichols Sr. was one of the first on the scene and helped pull people out of the building, Peck said.
Nichols said he spent a year in Iraq and that was as close as he could come to explain the extent of devastation.
“I have never seen destruction like that in my career. I have been in law enforcement 35 years and I have never seen anything like this in my life, except overseas,” he said.
The firefighters who were injured were part of Farmington’s full-time staff. It is really going to significantly affect Farmington and other communities, Nichols said.
Fire departments from around the area are helping to cover the Farmington department.
The Fire Rescue Department’s ladder truck was damaged and is out of service, Peck said. A ladder truck from Kennebec County was being sent to the fire station.
Gov. Mills of Farmington also responded to the scene.
“We are a strong community. We are a very, close knit community,” Mills said.
She said they want to protect all other communities from this kind of thing happening to them. They will work to make sure the cause and origin is found so it doesn’t happen again, she said.
“Meanwhile our hearts go out to all of the families of the injured and deceased and all of the people of this community of which I am a proud member,” Mills said.
Farmington police initially responded to a report of a gas leak early Monday morning.
“At 8:07, the Farmington Fire Department received a call of a smell of gas at 313 Farmington Falls Road,” which is also U.S. Route 2, said Peck. “The fire department responded, and while they were investigating the scene the building exploded.”
Most of the nonprofit’s staff had exited the building by the time it exploded, according to Amanda Simoneau, director of Franklin County Emergency Management Agency. Of the seven people that were injured, one was a LEAP maintenance employee, one was a Northstar ambulance employee and five were Farmington firefighters, Peck noted.
“We have one person burned with a leg injury who was LifeFlighted to Mass General,” Darryl Wood, executive director of LEAP, said.
Larry Lord made sure employees evacuated the building. Wood referred to Lord as a hero.
“The most important thing, right now, is the people that were injured are our No. 1 priority. Everything else will come after,” Wood said.
Emergency first responders and Lord put their safety a side to take care of other people involved, he said.
“There are a lot of heroes here,” Wood said
“They began the evacuation at 8:07 a.m., and the explosion came about 25 minutes later … at 8:28,” Simoneau said. “There was time for most of (the LEAP employees) to get out.”
Several mobile homes behind the LEAP building were damaged in the incident as well. According to Randy Dean, landlord of the mobile home park, 11 homes have been destroyed and 30 people have been displaced. Dean gave the contact information of the displaced residents to Maine State Police, who he said are helping to figure out accommodations.
“I am just thankful that none of my residents have serious injuries and were able to walk away,” Dean said. “Many were home and present at the time of the explosion. My heart goes out to the first responders that were on the scene.”
According to Peck, Fire Chief Terry S. Bell Sr. was among the injured and was transported by LifeFlight from the scene.
Bell became a lieutenant in 1983, was promoted to assistant chief the following year, and promoted to deputy chief in 1991 before being named chief in 2000. A Farmington native, he graduated from the Maine State Fire Academy in 1981 and, in 1991, became the town’s emergency management director.
McCausland said multiple homes in the area where damaged and the LEAP building, which was recently renovated and expanded, was destroyed. The town had assessed the building’s value at $100,000.
LEAP is a local, nonprofit organization that provides services to people with cognitive and intellectual disabilities in western and central Maine. It recently celebrated 38th years offering home and community services, including individualized residential care, adult case management, respite care and training for community volunteers.
The building was only a couple of weeks old, Farmington Town Selectman Scott Landry said. A hole is all that is left.
“The new building is spread all over creation,” Landry said.
Steve Cutler, who lives about a half-mile away on Davis Road, said pictures fell off his walls and it “just shook the whole house.”
Cutler described the explosion scene as “complete chaos.” He went outside on his deck, got into his truck, and that’s when I saw “complete devastation.”
“It was white insulation, materials everywhere. I was dumbfounded,” Cutler said.
Cutler recalled smoke and fire in the back of the building as well as “trees covered in wood, insulation and plaster.”
He commended the bravery of the first responders.
“They’re heroes, every one of them,” Cutler said. “Let’s pray for those injured and pray that they recover. This is a close-knit community. If we lose someone, we all feel it.”
Kim Hilton, who works in the admissions department at nearby University of Maine at Farmington, said there were scary moments when the blast occurred.
“It felt like someone hit our building with a vehicle,” she said.
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