Fire destroys family's home but not their hopes

On Sunday morning, January 27, Richard Casey, his wife Samantha and their four children went to church at Mid-Coast Country Chapel in Wiscasset like they do every Sunday. It was a special day for them, as they were to be baptized later that day.

When the family was preparing to go home after church for their afternoon meal, they received terrible news.

"We went to Shaw's to get a few groceries and then on the way out the door, we got a phone message from my sister, saying that our house was on fire," said Richard Casey.

The Casey's home, at 65 Jones Road, filled with everything they owned, was completely engulfed in flames when they reached their driveway. The first firefighter on the scene, Captain Mike Williams, reported a fully engulfed structure.

Wiscasset First Assistant Fire Chief John Merry said, "We called for mutual aid from Alna, Dresden and Woolwich fire departments for tankers because the scene was so far off the road."

"A portable water tank was set up so tankers could fill up to supply the front line engine right at the fire scene. There was too much damage to try and investigate the cause; it was a total loss. I didn't call the fire marshal because we didn't think it was suspicious."

Friends and neighbors looked on in the bitter cold as firefighters battled the blaze while fire from a recently filled propane tank lit up the dense smoke.

Wiscasset Fire Chief Tim Merry said, "The Red Cross was called in to assist the family, since all that they had left were the clothes on their backs."

"The wind was so strong out of the east that the smoke was blown in a direction that kept even their closest neighbors from knowing that there was a fire until the trucks arrived.

"Twenty-five to thirty firefighters were on the scene to battle the blaze. Unfortunately, there was not much we could do," he said.

The call to the fire department was made when a passerby saw a column of black smoke.

Casey returned to his property off the Bradford Road the day after the fire with a metal detector in hopes of finding some personal items from his former two-story home that he had built with his own hands.

"We stopped over there today and hoped to at least find the kids' birth certificates, since we had them in a metal filing cabinet, but everything was gone," Casey said.

"If we find anything at all, it will be a miracle. The only thing that came out of the house untouched by the fire was a curling iron," Casey chuckled.

"The outpouring of support we are getting is just phenomenal. God has allowed this to happen. The things that He is showing us through all of this are just overwhelming. We received so much love and good news today alone. There have been so many great blessings, from the littlest things to the biggest.

"It even made me more convinced that the baptism had to happen. The fire was part of the new birth that we were given, a cleansing away of everything old in our lives so that we could begin our new life. I just didn't realize how far down the foundation would have to go."

That very same evening, Casey said that he and his wife, their son Daniel and other members of the church, were baptized in the pool at the Wiscasset Community Center as a symbol of their commitment to follow Jesus.

"It was truly a baptism by fire," Casey said.

The family is staying with Richard Casey's sister, Lucinda Tilas, in Wiscasset. She said her brother's house, which was only about five years old, was not insured.

For those who would like to help the family, Tilas said donations can be sent to The Casey Family Fund, First National Bank of Damariscotta, P.O. Box 431, Wiscasset, ME 04578.