Auburn firefighters battle the house fire at 184 Youngs Corner Road in Auburn on Wednesday. 

Auburn firefighters battle the house fire at 184 Youngs Corner Road in Auburn on Wednesday. 

Auburn firefighters battle a house fire at 184 Youngs Corner Road from the backyard in Auburn on Wednesday.

Gerry Schneider photographed the fire at 184 Youngs Corner Road from her plane in Auburn on Wednesday. 

AUBURN — Fire devoured a house on Youngs Corner Road on Wednesday, forcing an 89-year-old woman to flee her childhood home.

Witnesses said Marilyn Reilly escaped with her dog just before the sprawling two-story house was engulfed in flames.

“We saw her in the road, running after her dog,” said Maxine Warner, a New Hampshire woman who was driving past. “I thought it was just some woman trying to catch her dog, but then I looked up and saw all that smoke and flames on the first floor. We got her out of the road. She was shaken up and very concerned about her dog.”

Reilly suffered a gash to her leg and was taken into a house across the street with her dog, Honey. Witnesses said it was just a matter of minutes before the house was completely consumed by fire.

“It happened fast — very fast,” Warner said. “I called 911, but by the time the firefighters got here, it was totally engulfed. The heat coming off it was amazing.”

Lynda LeVasseur of Lewiston pulled to the side of the road to call 911 after driving upon the blaze. She later described the experience on Facebook.

“I’ve never been so terrified,” LeVasseur wrote. “It exploded a little as I was going by the driveway. I could feel the heat on my arm as I went by.”

Fire officials were still investigating the cause later Wednesday night.

The nearly 100-year-old house at 184 Youngs Corner sits across the street from Rebecka Campbell’s farm, a short distance from the corner at Hotel Road. Smoke from the fire could be seen from the Lewiston side of the Veterans Bridge.

Patty Dupont, who lives next door, said that at first it was just a smell of smoke. She called 911 and almost immediately after, Reilly’s house was up in flames.

“At that point, I knew I had to get out of my own house,” Dupont said. “It happened so fast.”

A family member said the Life Alert alarm Reilly wears around her neck summoned help to the scene. Ralph Fletcher, Reilly’s son-in-law, said he was at his camp on nearby Taylor Pond when he got notice that Reilly’s Life Alert had been triggered.

“It cost 70 dollars a month,” Fletcher said, “and it may have saved her life.”

While Reilly was cared for at Campbell’s home across the street from her own, firefighters worked on keeping the flames from spreading to nearby houses. Within a matter of minutes, Reilly’s house, built in 1929, had been reduced to a few charred beams. Lost, said Fletcher, were 100-year-old antiques, photo albums, antique furniture and toys Reilly had saved from her childhood.

“It’s gone. All of it, gone,” Fletcher said. “But she got out with her dog and apparently her cat was out in the field somewhere. Everything that was living inside the house is still living.”

Across the street, Reilly’s friends and relatives tried to keep her from watching the house she was born in burn to the ground. Roughly 45 minutes after the fire began, however, she wandered out with her dog on a leash and watched as fire crews continued dousing the flames.

As fire crews from Auburn, Lewiston, Poland and other towns made their way to the scene, police struggled to control commuter-hour traffic at Youngs Corner and Hotel roads. In a pasture across from the burning house, a horse trotted nervously to and fro, unnerved by the flames.

Several people stood in a field along Hotel Road watching Reilly’s house burn to the ground.

Jessica Girouard of Lewiston said she had just driven by the house a few minutes before fire crews began racing to the scene. By the time she turned around, the house was fully engulfed.

“It went up in a matter of maybe 10 minutes,” Girouard said. “It happened that fast.”

Warner, who helped get Reilly and her dog out of the road, said there had been some early confusion about whether there were more people inside the house when it went up in flames. She and another passerby ran around the house but didn’t find anybody. By the time they got to the other side of the road again, the house was completely consumed.

“You don’t realize how damaging fire is, and how complex until you get that close to one,” Warner said.

Fire crews remained at the scene four hours after the fire was first reported. A fire investigator examined the ruins, but the cause remained undetermined Wednesday night.

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A Wednesday evening fire destroyed a Youngs Corner Road home in Auburn.

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A fire Wednesday evening has destroyed a Youngs Corner Road home in Auburn.

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A fire Wednesday evening has destroyed a Youngs Corner Road home in Auburn.

DO NOT USE; WEB ONLY
A fire Wednesday evening has destroyed a Youngs Corner Road home in Auburn.

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A fire Wednesday evening has destroyed a Youngs Corner Road home in Auburn.

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Auburn police have closed Youngs Corner Road from Hotel Road to Lost Valley on Wednesday evening as firefighters respond to a fire.

Youngs Corner Road in Auburn was closed down as firefighters from Auburn, Lewiston and the surrounding towns battled a fire at 184 Youngs Corner Road in Auburn on Wednesday. 

The home at 184 Youngs Corner Road in Auburn burns Wednesday. 

Auburn firefighters change out air tanks at the Youngs Corner Road fire on Wednesday. 

The wood fence in front of the home at 184 Youngs Corner Road burned in the fire. 

An Auburn firefighter taps another on his back to let him know that his air tank has been changed at the house fire on Youngs Corner Road on Wednesday. 

An Auburn firefighter battles a house fire at 184 Youngs Corner Road from the backyard in Auburn on Wednesday.