MEDWAY, Maine — A collection of antique cars that took decades to assemble was lost in a fire that destroyed a garage on Village Lane in less than an hour on Monday.
No injuries were reported, firefighters said.
Neighbors said that 63-year-old garage owner Ronald Martin was working in the garage at 11 Village Lane when the fire was reported at about 1:05 p.m. When the first firefighters arrived, Martin was out of the garage, and it was already burning so heavily that the plastic siding on Martin’s home about 40 yards to the southeast was melting. Another garage farther to the north also was threatened, Medway Fire Chief Jon Buckingham said.
“Our main goal was to protect the two [other buildings],” Buckingham said Monday.
Eighteen-year-old neighbor Dylan Johnston, who said he is a good friend of Martin’s, counted several vehicles destroyed, including a 1940 Pontiac sedan, a 1986 Cadillac, a convertible and “an old wooden vehicle.”
“There were a lot of 1950s vehicles within the garage,” Johnston said.
What appeared to be a 1950s Chevrolet pickup truck and a fin-tailed convertible were parked on the southern edge of Martin’s property, possibly having been moved out of the five-bay garage as the fire spread, Johnston said.
Neighbors said Martin appeared distraught, and he did not want to be interviewed.
The fire was a tragedy, Johnston said.
“It’s a total loss. I have a lot of memories here,” Johnston said.
Firefighters from East Millinocket, Lincoln, Mattawamkeag, Millinocket and Sherman helped Medway, Buckingham said. With temperatures approaching 90 degrees, ambulance workers distributed bottled water to firefighters and monitored them for heat exhaustion.
The cause of the fire remains undetermined, said Buckingham, who notified the state fire marshal’s office.
Neighbors wondered how Martin would recover from his losses.
The vehicle collection “was his life, all his life,” one neighbor said.