Maine Fire Has Mom Dropping Kids From 2nd Floor

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July 30--PORTLAND -- Chasity Holtan made the terrifying decision to drop her children from a second-story window to neighbors waiting below Friday afternoon, when a smoky blaze forced the evacuation of a Sherman Street apartment building and left 33 people homeless.

Holtan then crawled out of the window and hung by her arms from the sill, waiting for firefighters to arrive.

"I was hanging there a good 10 or 12 minutes before firefighters got me," Holtan recalled, still shaking, her skin and clothes blackened by smoke.

Holtan, 26, was home with her three young children and two nieces when the fire broke out around 2 p.m., sending smoke throughout the hallways and 13 apartments in the three-story building at 123 Sherman St.

Deputy Chief Robert Wassick said the cause remains under investigation, and he wouldn't say where the fire started. Damage to the building was largely caused by smoke and water, he said. No injuries were reported.

The fire was extinguished around 2:30 p.m. American Red Cross volunteers arrived shortly afterward and arranged to provide shelter for 20 residents for the next three days, Wassick said. After that, the landlord and insurance companies usually cover the cost of alternative housing.

Several neighbors, including Harley Jones, called the fire department and started helping tenants get out of the building. Firefighters and paramedics arrived soon after, filling the downtown street with flashing fire trucks, yellow hoses and rescue vehicles.

"I was getting dressed when I heard a woman scream for help," Jones recalled, standing shirtless on the sidewalk. "I looked out the window and saw a couple people lower a toddler to safety from a first-floor window. I called the fire department and then I ran outside to help."

Mary Howes, whose mobility is limited by Parkinson's disease, was trapped in her third-floor apartment for 20 minutes, she said. When she first tried to leave, she found the hallway was full of smoke. She headed into her bedroom, located at the back of the building, but the smoke followed her there.

"I didn't know what to do," Howes said, sitting on steps across the street from her house. "I opened a window so I could breathe."

About that time, Jay Axhami was driving on Grant Street, which runs parallel to Sherman Street, when he saw Howes in her bedroom window. He stopped his car and talked with her, encouraging her to keep her head outside so she wouldn't be overcome by smoke. Then Axhami, who lives in Portland, notified firefighters that a tenant was trapped in a third-floor rear apartment.

Fix-up finishes made to historic Knox Hotel Apartments — Maine ...

THOMASTON, Maine — Janet Benner, 70, of Thomaston has lived in the Knox Hotel for 26 years now. So you can imagine when some workmen came in to remove her old appliances, she got defensive.

“My fridge and stove were beautiful. They didn’t have to take them,” Benner said. Though when pressed, she agreed that her new stove and refrigerator work pretty well, too.

Benner’s home, the Knox Hotel, which was built in 1915, recently got a complete makeover. The building’s owner, local politicians and hotel residents gathered Tuesday for a small celebration to recognize the renovations in the historic space.

Benner is one of about 30 residents who live in Knox Hotel Apartments, which offers affordable housing to elderly people. The 31,516-square-foot building also is the home of a branch of Camden National Bank . Before the 1970s, the building always had housed a hotel.

“Then [in the 1970s], summer people started buying cottages and stopped staying in beautiful old hotels,” said Lee-Ann Upham, who has been on the Thomaston Board of Selectmen for 19 years. “It hit a critical point in the late 1970s. [Building owner] David [Twombly] came at the right time — like a white knight — and created affordable living space. Thomaston is very grateful.”

Twombly had heard in the 1970s that the old hotel was about to be torn down, so he bought it. He was spending some time in Maine working as a city planner in Portland around the time he bought the building. Now he renovates historic buildings for a living, taking advantage of the U.S. government tax credits for people who do this sort of work.

Maine also has those credits. Plus, Maine gives benefits to people who create affordable housing. Adding up all of the tax rebates, Twombly will get more than 45 cents back for every dollar he invested into the old hotel.

It took 30 years before anything was done to the building, but Twombly got to work last November and is adding the finishing touches to the building this month.

“It has major problems with water infiltration and heat loss,” Twombly said of the building. “This project was in trouble. We had a lot of work and not a lot of money to begin with.”

The federal and state tax incentives helped.

“I’m considering doing another project in Thomaston right now. What allows me to do it is Maine’s state historic tax credit,” Twombly said Tuesday, as he stood near his building’s front porch.

Census of Housing (1990):Maine General Housing Characteristics

Moving to Maine, The Essential Guide to Get You There and What You Need to Know to Stay

Linking Housing and Services for Older Adults, Obstacles, Options, and Opportunities

Maine revised statutes annotated, 1964, being the tenth revision of the Revised statutes of the state of Maine, 1964

Affordable Housing Through Historic Preservation, A Case Study Guide to Combining the Tax Credits