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By Morning Sentinel staff 04/12/2008

enlarge Staff photo by Jim Evans

FATAL FIRE: Ron Buck he looks over the damage to the home where he lived and was injured early Friday morning. One person was killed in the fire. Buck said, "I just wanted to make sure my friends were ok. The heat was so intense it just dropped me to my knees." He was wearing jeans under the hospital gown.

enlarge Staff photo by Jim Evans

INVESTIGATION: A front porch roof is pulled away to help investigators.

enlarge Staff photo by Jim Evans

INVESTIGATION: A front porch roof is pulled away to help investigators.

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The fire marshal's office has not ruled out arson, Maine Public Safety Spokesman Steve McCausland said. McCausland identified the deceased as 19-year-old Joshua Walker. Injured in the fire were 37-year-old Ronald Buck of Buckfield, Joseph Stasser and 29-year-old Scott Grandmaison, both of Waterville.

After firefighters extinguished the blaze, investigators fanned out across several blocks, interviewing neighbors, and the fire marshal arrived to examine the house. Waterville Police began searching for a man who was believed to have fled the scene, Chief Joseph Massey said.

At least three people escaped the fire without injury, including Joshua Marchetti, John Allen and Laurie Cothran.

Allen on Friday morning stood in the street with several housemates as firefighters took a break near the charred building. He said he did not know how the fire started.

"I heard someone banging around and I looked out and the place was full of smoke," he said. "I looked out on the porch and the wicker furniture was in flames."

Allen said he believed the fire began on the side porch, a fact later confirmed by the Department of Public Safety.

Another resident, Ron Buck, stood nearby wearing a hospital gown and jeans, both hands swathed in bandages. They had been injured in the fire, he said, but before he could go into detail, police took him and Allen away from the scene, saying that they needed their clothes as evidence for the fire investigation.

The Waterville Fire Department received a call for help at 4:59 a.m., when people nearby first noticed the fire.

One of the callers was Nicholas Lane, who was on the road delivering Morning Sentinel newspapers when he saw a yellow glow coming from Western Avenue.

"We saw flames up in the sky, so we went there and saw that no one was helping," Lane said. "A quarter of a mile away, we heard cracking noises."

Lane said while he watched, the heat drove at least two people out of an upstairs window. He said they leapt from the rooftop of the front porch, which was in flames, to escape. Waterville Police Deputy Chief Charles Rumsey said the residents in the upstairs apartment had had some sort of small gathering at the time of the fire and were not asleep.

Jennifer Swett, a friend who had accompanied Lane, said the flames were higher than nearby treetops.

There were scorch marks on nearby outbuildings at least 15 feet from the structure. The large house was destroyed. Its metal roof made it more difficult for firefighters to extinguish the blaze, Sgt. Ken Grimes of the State Fire Marshal's Office said.

"Metal roofs don't vent," he said. "They just hold the heat inside like an oven."

Firefighters two months ago responded to a report of a fire in the same building, in the upstairs apartment, Massey said. The house also was the site of a large drug bust in 2006 that resulted in an arrest.

Police at that time said they seized three pounds of marijuana and more than $5,000 in cash.

The arrest marked he culmination of a five-month-long investigation.

Police also responded to a report of a home invasion at the same site. Their knowledge and involvement with the history of the house and its occupants played a role in police officers' decision to bring in a group of investigators to get an early start at examining Friday's fire, Rumsey said.

"Based on what's happened today, and looking at a lot of events that have happened at that house, it leaves us with a lot of unanswered questions that we are trying to answer," Rumsey said.

Joel Elliott -- 861-9252

jelliott@centralmaine.com

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