RICHMOND

The Richmond Fire Department and four neighboring departments responded to a chimney fire on Plummer Road on Sunday night that turned into a structure fire that badly damaged a home.

Fire Chief Andrew Pierce said this morning he received the call of a chimney fire at 10:47 p.m. Sunday at 218 Plummer Road. When he got there, the homeowner said the fire was burning behind a wall and he saw fire coming out of the back of the building and immediately called a first alarm fire, calling in Litchfield, Dresden, Bowdoin and Bowdoinham fire departments.

Part of the challenge was that the home had a metal roof, he said, which hampers firefighters because when the fire reaches the roof, it starts moving sideways. Still, firefighters knocked the fire down fast, he said, but then had many hot spots to watch for. Crews ended up pulling down much of the ceiling to fight the fire and he estimated the house sustained around $20,000 in damage and was uninhabitable. Firefighters cleared the scene at around 2 a.m. today.

The homeowner, Susan Richardson, was home at the time the fire was reported and had a couple of guests, Pierce believed, who all went to stay with friends in Dresden.

No one was injured in the fire. It began as a chimney fire in an old chimney, and is not considered suspicious, Pierce said.