KITTERY, Maine — When the wind blew across the parking lot in the right direction, one could still smell ash kicking up from the charred remains of the Days Inn in Kittery on Friday—a full two days since much of it burned to the ground.
As of Friday evening, the Maine Department of Public Safety had not responded to questions about if and when a cause would be determined, or if and when the identity of the person whose body was found in the rubble would be determined.
What was known, is that decisions had to be made within seconds once crews arrived on scene Wednesday afternoon to make sure more people and businesses weren’t harmed. The singed shingles on a gazebo in the hotel’s parking lot reminded passersby of that.
Kittery Fire Chief David O’Brien was the one making most of the decisions during the fight against the flames.
"They did everything they possibly could; everything. Bar none, they did everything," the 48-year firefighter said Friday. "And we sent two people into a building we shouldn’t have, but we got them out instantly. They knew the decision-making process."
O’Brien sat down with NEWS CENTER Maine in one of the firehouse bays Friday afternoon. He initially declined to speak on camera, but then decided he wanted his firefighters to talk and said he would join them. Four young men pulled up chairs—a mere fraction of the teams of men and women from surrounding towns who descended on the Route 1 business.
"It’s the biggest I’ve ever seen," Devin Parmley, who had been with the department just under a year, said. Jacob Leyden nodded his head in agreement, having served just a few months longer than Parmley.
Phil Posa was one of the two people O’Brien sent into the burning building.
The chief said he initially determined his crews would wage a "defensive" fight, and with the combined might of the mutual aid on scene and a hose dragged more than 1,000 feet to the hydrant in front of the firehouse, O’Brien estimated nearly 2,000,000 gallons of water was dumped onto the two-story hotel.
But, he said, intel came in that there might be a person trapped inside. So, he sent in Posa and another crewmate.
Posa recalled feeling the intense heat as they entered a corridor. They came to a fire door as smoke and flames built higher. Posa’s training taught him to assess if a building or room could have conditions where someone might be able to survive. Before attempting to open the fire door, Posa made a difficult choice.
"You could tell that nobody was gonna be able to have survived in that area," he recalled. "The conditions were just very poor."
So, they pulled out. O’Brien commended the decision.
It is still unclear how or where the lone victim died in the pile of tangled remains. But O’Brien’s team would go through a debriefing and counseling from a trained specialist—who also happens to be a firefighter themselves.
The chief hoped Wednesday’s fire would be the largest his young firefighters ever had to face. It was also the first time Parmley and Leyden dealt with a fatal fire. Whether they felt fine or not, help would be there, from professionals and from their leader.
"Back years ago, you 'suck it up,'" O’Brien explained. "Well, those days are gone. We suck it up, but we talk about it."