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Three rescued from Gorham apartment building fire late Tuesday night

Eileen Kalikow is the landlord of the building and said she's working with the Red Cross to help her tenants find housing.

GORHAM, Maine — Gorham firefighters rescued three people from an apartment building fire late Tuesday night.

Gorham Fire Chief Ken Fickett confirmed with NEWS CENTER Maine the call came in around 10:30 p.m. reporting a fire at 162 Narragansett St.

Fire crews from seven towns responded to the fire, and upon arrival were told there were three people trapped inside the burning building, Fickett said.

Fickett said all three were rescued. Two of the three people were taken to an area hospital, one has been released and the other was listed as fair condition, Fickett said Wednesday morning.

He added no firefighters were injured in the fire.

The Fire Marshal is investigating the incident, but Fickett said it appears to be an accidental cooking fire.

"There’s extensive damage in the apartment where the fire was as well as smoke damage throughout the whole structure," Fickett added.

It will be quite some time before people will be able to move back into the apartment building, if at all, Fickett said, but the landlord is working to put tenants up in a local motel for the time being.

Credit: Gorham Fire Department

"It was very important to me for my tenants to have a place to be and go", landlord Eileen Kalikow said Wednesday.

She said she's owned the Narragansett St. property for 30 years and her priority is to help the affected tenants. Kalikow said she spent hours overnight at her building helping the Mainers who lived there.

She also gave back the tenants' March rent payment so they can have some extra money to stay on their feet for now.

The Red Cross is also working to help displaced tenants. Officials with the organization told NEWS CENTER Maine they haven't been able to get in touch with everyone, so they encourage those who haven't made contact to reach out for services.

The number to call is 1-800-RED-CROSS. The Red Cross building is located at 2401 Congress Street in Portland.

Kalikow said it's been an "awful" day for her as she works with her insurance agent, contractors, and her tenants as she tries to plan a way forward. She said she does have a tentative plan to remodel the property but needs to wait for the investigation and full damage assessment to conclude.

"I just hope that I’ll be able to make it whole again," Kalikow added.

But this isn't the first time tenants in this apartment building have had to leave their homes.

This apartment building is the same one that was damaged back in early January when a car went off the road and crashed into a truck, pushing the truck into an apartment on the first floor of the building.

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