WEST BATH — Firefighters from eight communities helped douse a fire Sunday morning that destroyed part of a home at 195 State Road, across the street from the West Bath fire station.

West Bath Fire Chief Chet Swain said some firefighters were training and cleaning at the station Sunday morning when “this gentleman came running out screaming, ‘My house is on fire! My house is on fire.’”

The house is an old structure with a metal roof that holds in heat and creates a very hot fire, Swain said. Firefighters attacked the blaze from two ends and managed to control the fire within about 30 minutes.

Swain said it appears the fire started somewhere around the stove pipe.

What can happen after the recent hot weather followed with a couple nights of cool weather, Swain said, is that people start their stoves back up and just let them simmer, and “that’s when you get your creosote buildup, and it doesn’t burn off.”

In addition to the West Bath Fire Department, firefighters from Bath, Brunswick, Topsham, Woolwich, Phippsburg, Georgetown and Wiscasset responded to the call, which was reported around 9:15 a.m. Sunday.

Firefighters “pretty much contained it to the old part of the house, so I think the new part is savable,” Swain said. “Unfortunately, the gentleman didn’t have insurance.”

The home belongs to Bob Bresnahan, who was home alone Sunday morning, watching television when he heard a noise in a back room, opened a door and the room was full of fire.

“Fortunately for me, these guys were across the street washing out the parking lot so I ran out” and yelled to them, Bresnahan said Sunday.

He’d just put his 17-year-old dog, Jack, outside. His wife was out of state visiting her mother and was scheduled to return Sunday afternoon.

Bresnahan, who thanked firefighters on scene Sunday, said he moved into the home around 1977.

“I got a lot of years out of it,” he said. “I am just so thankful it didn’t happen at 3 in the morning, because I’d have probably died.”

While Bresnahan said his home wasn’t insured, friends and neighbors who came to support him Sunday were already planning a benefit to help their friend, a longtime welder at Bath Iron Works, according to his son.

One neighbor offered him a place to stay and brought some dog food over for Jack.

Until he figures out what to do with what remains of the house, Bresnahan said Sunday that he plans to take up temporary residence in a camper.

dmoore@timesrecord.com