BATH

It’s hard enough to fight a fire that makes a family homeless on Thanksgiving. It’s doubly hard when the victims are members of the firefighting family.

Dave Hudson’s home at 9 Hound’s Way off North Bath Road caught fire and was reported at 3:45 p.m. Thursday. Hudson is a Bath Fire Captain who serves as Rescue Chief. He also works at Mid Coast Hospital as Director of Paramedic Services. The family, including Hudson, his wife and children, his mother-in-law, and other children, heard sounds that they first thought were fireworks. They opened the door to investigate and discovered a fire in their garage.

According to Hudson’s sister, Dorrie Hamill, everyone got out safely, along with the family’s pets. One person was sent to the hospital as a precaution.

According to Christopher Cummings, Fire Chief in Bath, while the garage was fully involved and is a total loss, the rest of the house may be salvagable. “There is a lot of smoke and water damage,” he said. “But we think right now the rest of the house can be saved.”

Cummings said that the remote location caused a second alarm to be sounded. Many towns responded to the fire, including Bath, West Bath, Topsham, Woolwich, Arrowsic, Brunswick, and Harpswell, with Wiscasset serving as standby. Bath Police helped with traffic control, and the Mid Coast Hospital paramedic team was also on hand.

Because the fire was in a rural area, there were no hydrants available. “We had to bring hoses in and pipe water in from a pond, about 800-1,000 feet away,” he said.

He said that the fire department will help the Hudson family with whatever they need to recover from the fire. “Firefighters stick together,” he said.

ghamilton@timesrecord.com