Husky News

Evans Lister and his wife, Heather, discovered they had more friends in Vassalboro than they realized after a fire destroyed their home.

Half a dozen neighbors offered to open their homes to the couple as they try to recover from the shock of Saturday’s disaster, Evans said. He had been out deer hunting in Palermo when someone contacted him through one of his companions to let him know his house was on fire.

He rushed home, fearing for his wife’s safety.

“I was all the way home before I knew my wife was all right,” Evans said. “That was all I really cared about was that my wife was OK, and the pets that we considered like our children.”

The couple had two cats and one dog. One cat did not survive the fire.

But the dog, Nokoma, a 105-pound, shaggy white Samoyed, may have saved Heather Lister’s life by waking her before the fire consumed her bedroom, Evans Lister said.

Oblivious to the danger, Heather Lister did not wake even as flames tore through the house and neighbors beat on the door to rouse her, according to Vassalboro Fire Chief Eric Rowe.

When firefighters arrived, “the back end of the house was totally (in flames),” Rowe said. “It had a good start before we got there. And it was breezy that day, so the wind helped fan the fire.”

Rowe said he does not know the cause of the fire, although he suggested faulty electrical wiring or the couple’s wood stove as possible culprits.

It took about an hour and a half for firefighters to douse the blaze, and Rowe called for a backhoe to finish demolishing the structure to prevent sparks from setting neighboring houses afire.

There wasn’t much left.

“Remember that picture from Portland where the house blew up from the natural gas?” Rowe said. “Well, that’s what it looked like.”

A couple of days later, on Tuesday, Evans Lister sat next to Nokoma in an apartment borrowed from Robert and Dolores Cryan and described the experience.

“I’m just in shock,” Evans said. “I can’t believe it happened to me. I’m used to being on the other side of these things.”

But the community’s support in response to the destruction was overwhelming.

“I just didn’t realize how people pulled together around here,” he said.

The Listers said they are trying to get reimbursement from their insurance company and hope to rebuild on the site of their old home, Evans said.

“All I really need is enough clothes to go to work,” he said. “I’ve got that. I’ve got my wife, and she’s healthy, and I’ve still got two out of three pets.”

Source: Kennebec Journal