Unity fire kills triplet brothers - By Walter Griffin, Of the NEWS Staff

UNITY — Six-year-old triplet brothers died Wednesday night when fire swept through their 2ñ-story home, trapping them inside as their mother and a neighbor tried in vain to rescue them. The boys' mother, Carmen Freyer, managed to pull their 2-year-old sister, Elizabeth, from the burning wood-frame house, but both suffered burns.

The three boys — Brydon, Josh and Marcus White — remained inside as the massive fire, with flames leaping from the roof and windows, horrified firefighters and bystanders. The house is on Woods Lane, a cross street off School Street in the center of town.

Waldo County Sheriff Robert Jones, also a Unity firefighter, had a fatal heart attack while fighting the fire. Another, unidentified firefighter also was believed to have suffered a heart attack.

Unity Fire Chief Mike Heath was emotionally overcome and required medical assistance at the scene.

''This is a tragedy,'' said witness James Saucier as smoke swirled around him, ''one this community will never forget.''

The mother was taken by ambulance to MidMaine Medical Center in Waterville, where she was reported in good condition Wednesday night. Elizabeth Freyer's burns did not require hospitalization and she was staying with a neighbor Wednesday night. The children's stepfather, Kurt Freyer, is a long-haul trucker and was believed to be out on the road, according to family friend Linda Picard.

Freyer's parents own the home and are in Florida for the winter, Picard said. The triplets attended Unity Elementary School, where they were enrolled in kindergarten. According to informed sources, the triplets were autistic.

The enormity of the tragedy was etched on the faces of the firefighters and sheriff's deputies who responded to the alarm. Flames shot above the rooftops and scores of onlookers stared at the blaze in horror as word spread about the fate of the triplets.

Saucier lives a few doors down from the Freyer home on Main Street and was one of the first at the scene.

He said he was alerted to the fire about 4 p.m. by an ambulance call broadcast over his police scanner. When he arrived, he saw Carmen Freyer lying on the ground outside the home, shouting that her sons were trapped inside.

''There was smoke coming from the back and side and then all of a sudden there were just flames coming from everywhere,'' Saucier said.

Saucier said Todd Converse, owner of an insurance agency on School Street, found little Elizabeth on the porch, where her mother had left her before she tried to re-enter the burning house. Saucier said Converse kicked open the door and tried to crawl inside on his belly, but was driven back by smoke.

''At that point there were flames everywhere. They were shooting out the roof, out the back windows, out everywhere,'' Saucier said. ''It was like, forget it.''

Firefighters from Unity were joined by departments from Burnham, Troy, Albion and Thorndike. Water was shuttled from fire ponds on School and Depot streets, but the wind-whipped flames were difficult to quell. Dozens of firefighters ringed the home, dousing the flames with water from their hoses, but they gained little ground.

The flames finally began to die down after about two hours of bombardment by constant streams of water. By that time the rear of the rambling house had collapsed and smoke continued to billow from broken windows, dormers and eaves.

At the request of the Unity Fire Department, Central Maine Power Co. shut off power to several towns in the area — a rare measure used only in a ''worst-case scenario,'' according to a CMP spokesman.

''When they say there are people trapped in a building, we have to dump the power at the nearest substation,'' said the spokesman, Dave Phifer. ''The firefighters have to get in there as soon as they can in that kind of situation.''

About 2,600 customers in eight towns — Plymouth, Dixmont, Unity, Albion, Palermo, Freedom, Troy and Unity Plantation — were affected by the outage, he said.

The power was turned off at about 4:30 p.m. and within an hour restored to all areas except the street where the fire was.

In the street, volunteers passed coffee and hot chocolate to the firefighters and deputies. Firefighters traded places with one another throughout the evening. Those being relieved slumped against trucks, sat on curbs and huddled together in small groups.

More than one was viewed in silent prayer, clutching a cigarette. Shock and tears could be seen on the faces of the many sheriff's deputies who stood in the cold, directing traffic as Jones' body lay in a nearby ambulance.

Gradually, more deputies arrived, joined by state police. Former Sheriff John Ford, for whom Jones served eight years as chief deputy, arrived, along with the present chief deputy, Scott Story.

On Wednesday night, firefighters were still at the scene, working to extinguish the smoldering blaze and making an attempt to remove the bodies.

The investigation is being handled by the State Fire Marshal's Office, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety. Four state fire marshals were sent to Unity to find the cause and in what part of the house the fire started.

The bodies of the victims could be taken to the state morgue for an autopsy or to a funeral home for examination. The medical examiner's findings will help decide where the bodies will be sent. McCausland said the Unity deaths were not the first fire deaths of the new year. The first was a woman who died over New Year's weekend.

Twenty-five people died in Maine fires last year.

NEWS reporters Doug Kesseli, Jeff Tuttle and Rachel Boyer contributed to this report.

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