Four are fortunate to escape late-night fire deliberately set

Four Sipayik residents were fortunate to escape a fire in their two-apartment building in the early morning hours of Saturday, May 13. A 21-year-old woman, Sarah Stanley, also of Sipayik, has been charged with arson for allegedly setting the fire while the building's occupants were sleeping.
The fire had been started in some trash near the front door of one of the apartments at 41 Bayview Drive that was occupied by Dominic Sapiel and Juliann Homan, with Dominic's brother Francis Sapiel and Leonard Francis Jr. in the other one, according to Pleasant Point Police Chief Roger Newell.
Dominic awoke to the glow of the fire, but Newell notes, "Dominic and Juliann couldn't get out through the door due to the smoke and the intense fire." He then banged on the wall between the apartments to get the attention of his brother, who ran outside and put up a ladder for Dominic to climb out of a second-story window. By that point, Homan had already jumped from a window on the second floor to the ground.
"They were all lucky to get out," says Newell, noting that the side of the building where Sapiel and Homan were sleeping "was fully engulfed when I got there."
Dominic then was calling for his dog, but the pitbull, named Blue, never made it out and died in the fire. Although a Downeast EMS ambulance was at the fire, none of the occupants of the apartments needed medical attention.
Pleasant Point Fire Chief Alan Sprague says approximately 12 to 15 firefighters responded to the blaze, which was called in at approximately 1:15 a.m. Along with three trucks from Pleasant Point, mutual aid was received with one truck each from Perry and Eastport. With a metal roof on the building, there was a lot of excess heat, and also it was difficult for firefighters to get into the other apartment, Sprague says.
Firefighters were able to leave the scene by 8 a.m., although it later rekindled and firefighters were called back on Sunday afternoon. The Maine State Fire Marshal's Office was contacted, and investigators responded to the scene. Sarah Stanley confessed to investigators that she had started the fire, according to Newell. She was arrested, charged with arson and transported to the Washington County Jail, where she is being held.
Sprague says the building is "a total loss," with a lot of smoke and water damage to the second apartment. He's grateful to the Eastport and Perry fire departments for their mutual aid and response. The four people living in the apartments lost all of their belongings, and Francis Sapiel has started a GoFundMe fundraiser for donations. He notes on the site that donations will be used for clothing, furniture and bedding. "We have nothing left besides the clothes that we slept in that night," he writes. "We are hoping to rebuild some day. That most important thing is that we are still alive, and we will continue to have hope that some day we will have a home again."