Perry family home destroyed by fire in Robbinston

A family's home went up in flames on Monday morning, March 6, on Boyden's Lake in Robbinston.
Robbinston Fire Chief Robert Merrill reports the two-story house on Loone Lane, just off the Lake Road, belonged to Eddie and Blanche Barnes. "We got a call around 10 a.m. from the homeowner. When we got there the house was fully involved, and the roof was caving in."
Two crews from Calais and one from Perry assisted the Robbinston firefighters at the scene, and Merrill says, "We had about 25 [firefighters] in total."
"The house was insured, and the fire is not deemed suspicious," he adds. "The homeowner was thawing out frozen pipes."
"We left the scene at 1:30 p.m., but a passerby called us at 5 p.m., and we had to go back for a rekindle. We spent an hour there making sure it was out," Merrill says.
Seven members of the Barnes family had been living in the house. All were safe, but a pet cat was lost.