enlarge
David Hench/Staff Writer
enlarge
Jill Brady/Staff Photographer"It was like fairies had come over. They were laughing and talking to each other. All of a sudden there was a long pause, and they all started cheering and applauding," Gosnell said Tuesday morning.
Family and friends of Scott Ryan and Rachel Crow, engaged to be married on Bustins Island this weekend, had been raking through debris from the turn-of-the-century seaside cottage when they uncovered the couple's wedding bands, which had somehow survived the inferno.
"They looked like they were destined to find them," Gosnell said. "There was a beautiful sunrise coming up over the water."
Rachel Crow, her mother, Janet Crow, and other members of the wedding party were staying at the cottage in this picturesque summer community off the coast of Wolfe Neck in Freeport. At 12:40 a.m., they were roused by the sound of a smoke alarm.
"Mom heard three beeps, and she said, 'Smoke! Get of out of bed, now,' in the tone you don't disobey," Crow said.
One of the five people staying in the cottage tried unsuccessfully to control the flames in the kitchen with a fire extinguisher while Janet Crow roused Ryan's grandmother. Everyone escaped, but the house was burning quickly.
Lois Dennett was sleeping next door and was roused by the yelling.
"As I woke up, I could see everything was light in here, lit from the orange light," she said. "In seconds, the whole house was engulfed in massive orange flames up to the trees."
Rachel Crow ran to her soon-to-be in-laws' cottage, where a fire alarm is located.
About a dozen members of the island's volunteer fire brigade mobilized a brush truck, an 1,800-gallon tank truck and a 1979 pumper recently bought from North Yarmouth. The engine failed on the pumper and though it made it to the scene, it wouldn't operate.
Freeport Fire Chief Darrell Fournier said the volunteers' quick work probably kept the fire from spreading to the nearby cottage and maybe farther. A couple of windows in the nearby cottage were broken, and some of the siding was charred.
The crew also kept two 100-gallon propane tanks from overheating and exploding, he said.
The first Freeport firefighters got to the island in 13 minutes on the town harbormaster's boat. More followed in the Lilly B, the island ferry.
They hauled a portable 250-gallon-per-minute pump onshore and were able to pump seawater onto the burning structure, bringing the fire under control by about 2:30 a.m. and cooling off the tanks so that firefighters with protective gear could move them away.
"We had no wind last night and it was very damp and rainy. Those all were in our favor," he said.
Fournier said he had not yet learned what caused the fire, which destroyed a cottage worth about $225,000.
The cottage is owned by Jay and Randall Thomas of Freeport, who have long had ties to the island. Randall Thomas is executive director of the Freeport Historical Society.
Jay Thomas said he believes the house was built in 1904 and his family bought it in 1965. The Thomas family had given use of the cottage to the bride and groom as a wedding present.
Janet Crow asked permission to search the rubble near where the rings had been left. Someone raking through the charcoal spotted Scott's ring.
"Jay found Rachel's ring in the box," Janet Crow said.
Scott Ryan, exhausted, had fallen asleep in the bedroom of a nearby cottage.
"Rachel came in and gently woke me and she slipped the ring on my finger," he said.
The rings were taken to a local jeweler to be cleaned.
Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or:
dhench@pressherald.com
Reader comments
Click here to view or add comments on this story
Were you interviewed for this story? If so, please fill out our accuracy form