After losing everything he owned to a fire earlier this week, Richard Fraiser said the community has come together for help and support.

Fraiser, his fiancee Mary Chedid and their dog Georgie were living at 14 Orchard Road in Windham near Highland Lake before the rental home was destroyed Monday.

“Thank God we got out,” said Fraiser, who has been wearing a bungee cord as a belt since the fire. He had been living at the Orchard Road address since October. Fraiser said there was a significant amount of money inside the house when it burned, including the cash he had just received from selling a snowmobile.

Fraiser said they spent Monday night at a house owned by friends Rocky Jordan and Sally Anne Swasey. K&W Country Store, located on nearby Falmouth Road, provided them with pizza, soda and some food and treats for Georgie.

“They wouldn’t take any money for any of it,” said Jordan.

Red Cross volunteers comforted the couple the night of the fire, and Fraiser said the organization also provided a house in Scarborough where they could stay for a few days.

Fraiser said he was upstairs at the house he rented from Richard and Cecelia Duperre when a smoke detector went off. Chedid and Georgie were not inside the house at the time. He discovered a fire in the wall next to the kitchen and phoned the fire department at about 1:45 p.m.

“They were right on the ball,” said neighbor Howard Murphy in regard to the fire department’s speedy response. Murphy said he was in his home when he saw a column of smoke through the window and then he said he soon heard a loud explosion-like sound.

Windham Fire Chief Charlie Hammond said the explosion was the sound of a propane heating tank valve melting. A gush of high-pressure gas forced its way out of a small opening in the tank, creating a sound like an explosion.

“It sounded like a freight train going through,” said Hammond.

With the valve melted, Hammond said firefighters were unable to turn off the flow of propane into the fire so they were forced to crimp the line.

Two parked cars in the driveway caught fire, one of which was completely engulfed in flames. Hammond said the intense heat from the house fire totally destroyed both cars.

Fraiser said he had just purchased one of the cars from a neighbor and had not yet insured it. The other vehicle, Fraiser said, had only liability insurance. He said he doesn’t know how he’s going to get to work without transportation.

The heat caused major damage to both the inside and outside of the house next door, which, according to Hammond, was only 15 feet away. Neighbors said the owner of the second house, Keith Kelley, had just left for work.

A telephone pole in front of the house was blackened from the fire, although a Central Maine Power employee was seen climbing the pole while crews sprayed down the two houses and two cars. The power to the street was turned off, because firefighters were concerned about the water and foam being sprayed too near to the power lines.