PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- A number of people have been displaced by fire that tore through an apartment building in Portland.
Officials say the Monday morning fire was sparked by two young kids trying to light sparklers with a toaster on a mattress.
While sparklers have always been legal in Portland, fireworks themselves, are not. Still, officials say this fire serves as a grim reminder of how dangerous any form of fireworks can be, and that you should never let kids near them, especially unsupervised.
The fire broke out just after 11:30am on the corner of Montgomery and Congress Streets. The building houses 22 units, luckily not all of them were filled. Fire officials did rescue two people from the fourth floor, but most of the tenants were ushered out by neighbors. None were injured.
One firefighter was sent to the hospital, he is expected to be fine, though.
In the meantime, Portland's acting fire chief, Stephen Smith, says he's uneasy about the number of calls their public safety crews have fielded already this summer. He says just this past Saturday, they responded to a dumpster fire sparked by illegal fireworks, and last Wednesday, a Virginia man was summonsed in Portland for posessing illegal fireworks.
About 9 people will be displaced for a few days because of the damage to the building; the Red Cross has been called in to help.
NEWS CENTER