Pot left on stove causes small fire at Lincoln school building
A pot left on a lit burner sparked a small fire at Northern Penobscot Tech Region III in Lincoln on Sept. 17. No one was inside, and firefighters had it under control nine minutes after the call.
LINCOLN — A pot left on a lit burner sparked a small fire at Northern Penobscot Tech Region III on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 17, the Lincoln Fire Department said. No one was inside the West Broadway school, and the fire was under control nine minutes after firefighters were called.
The school’s alarm system detected smoke on the second floor and alerted an alarm company, which reported it. Firefighters were dispatched at 5:33 p.m. and arrived three minutes later to find no sign of fire from outside the two-story brick building, according to a media release from the department.
Capt. Jake Hammond, the incident commander, followed a school staff member who arrived and unlocked the front door. Before Hammond could reach the alarm panel, the staff member spotted smoke from the front stairwell, and Hammond radioed crews outside that there was an active fire.
Upstairs, smoke had banked down to about eye level. The fire was on a kitchen stovetop, where the department said a large pot had likely been left on since classes ended around 2:30 p.m. Its contents boiled over and caught fire beneath the pot. Firefighters shut off the gas and removed the pot, and the flames went out on their own. The fire was declared under control at 5:42 p.m.
The fire was too small to trigger the kitchen’s suppression system, and the department said the alarm went off early enough to prevent smoke damage. Crews spent an extended time clearing smoke from the building with fans and the kitchen’s hood systems, then reset the alarm before leaving.
Lincoln responded with Engines 531 and 532 and Ambulance 537, later joined by Ladder 535 and Engine 533, staffed by off-duty firefighters. Central Maine Highlands Fire & EMS District #1 sent Engine 552, Tanker 554 and Ambulance 568 as mutual aid and was released once the fire was under control.
The department said the call showed why alarms at buildings like the school automatically bring in mutual aid. Crews treat every alarm as a fire until they prove otherwise, and with limited staffing, extra units are sent back as soon as they aren’t needed. When an alarm turns out to be a real fire, that help is already on the road.
“Did you know fire doubles in size every 30 seconds?!” the department wrote in its release.
The call was one of seven the department handled that day, on top of six hours of training. It brought Lincoln’s 2026 total to 1,464 calls, including 20 building fires.
How this story was reported: from a media release posted by the Lincoln Fire Department on Facebook. Lincoln Town Square is a privately owned publication of C.A. Lord Software Group LLC and is not affiliated with the Lincoln Fire Department, the Town of Lincoln, or any municipal entity.Lincoln, or any municipal entity.