By Leslie H. Dixon
Sun Journal
Copyright 2008 Sun Journal
PARIS, Maine — Two firefighters were treated for hypothermia after being submerged in neck-high water in a flooded cellar at 37 Highland Ave. on Friday afternoon.
Firefighters responded to the call for help shortly after noon and found a water pipe had broken on the second floor. Water had flowed down through the first floor, collapsing the ceiling and into the cellar where it knocked out an oil tank sending an estimated 50 to 100 gallons of oil into the water.
The Department of Environmental Protection is expected at the house Saturday to begin cleanup, fire Chief Brad Frost said.
“They were totally drenched, Frost said Friday night of Joe Cormier and Mike Balcom, who entered the cellar in full gear and immediately stepped into five-and-one-half-feet of water.
Balcom was treated by paramedics at the fire station, but Cormier was taken to Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway when his body temperature could not be raised. He was released Friday night, Frost said.
Debbie Gottlieb of Standish was at her mother’s vacant early 1900s home Friday to check it and found the damage, and called for help, the chief said. Her mother, Patricia Abbott, had lived there until recent years, and is now in a nursing home in Standish, he said.
Frost said the water was probably pouring out of the pipe between the second and first floor for days.
When firefighters arrived, the electricity had to be shut down.