BANGOR, Maine — Investigators were back Tuesday at the scene of two homes destroyed by fire on Center Street Ave in Bangor Monday night.
Bangor Fire investigators and Maine Fire Marshals combed through the two buildings which contained six apartments looking for a cause Tuesday.
The two Bangor apartment buildings are a total loss after a fire, Bangor fire chief Tom Higgins told NEWS CENTER Maine on the scene.
On Friday, May 21, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesperson Shannon Moss told NEWS CENTER Maine the fire was accidental and the cause was discarded smoking material.
Crews from six local fire departments assisted at the scene, taking them three hours to extinguish the flames.
"It's a tough fire, these fires are always tough when you have these buildings that have the age that they have," Higgins said. "We've not done anything for origin and cause at this point, our focus has been extinguishment and trying to get equipment cleaned up, and get it out of here, getting people rehabbed and back into service."
Bangor Assistant Fire Chief Phillip Hamm said people also posted rumors about the fire on Facebook which added to the confusion of an already difficult situation.
"There’s always a post that it’s a meth lab," said Hamm. "You know, some people are kidding but then there are other people that are just serious about it and then they act upon that and call the hospital to say that there’s a meth lab explosion and mass casualty incident and that’s what ended up happening last night. But that clearly wasn’t the case. We had two buildings that were on fire. Yes, there happen to be an explosion from what the reports were but we treated it like any other fire."
Higgins said nobody was injured but several families are displaced from their homes.
Red Cross of Northern New England is currently assisting four families who were displaced by the fire with food, clothing, and shelter. A GroupMe has been created for one of the people that lost their home.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.