At 1:13 p.m. on Aug. 14, Michele Demkowicz heard a bang.

She looked out the window and saw the roof of 26 Driftwood Lane — the house diagonal to hers — engulfed in flames and smoke.

Her husband, Robert, called 911 and immediately rushed outside. He hooked up two garden hoses and started spraying the lawn and the fence separating the properties. In a drought, he was worried that the fire would spread through the neighborhood. Firefighters arrived on the scene a few minutes later.

“The building was heavily involved,” said John Brennan, deputy chief of the Scarborough Fire Department. Firefighting crews initially entered the building, but when the roof showed signs of weakness, they ultimately opted to fight the fire from the outside of the building. Fire engulfed the house’s exterior and made its way up to the attic.

“It had a very good head start on us,” he added. Responders on the scene requested additional resources, Brennan said.

And when the firefighters hooked up to the nearest hydrant, there wasn’t enough water to fight the fire.

“The amount of water that we were trying to get from the system to extinguish the fire was more than the capacity the system at the time could give us,” Brennan said.

The department called in mutual aid water trucks from neighboring towns.

The responding Scarborough crews — with help from Old Orchard Beach Fire, Saco Fire, Biddeford Fire, South Portland Fire, Portland Fire and Buxton Fire — were able to contain the fire to the house of origin, though the garage and boat parked in the driveway were slightly damaged. There were no injuries. Portland, Westbrook and Gorham Fire Departments responded into Scarborough to cover empty firehouses.

Richie Rathsack, communications manager for the Maine Water Company, said that the water mains for Driftwood Lane are on the outskirts of the company’s coverage, and the pipes date to the 1900s.

“The size and age of these pipes limits the capacity of water available for fire flows,” he said.

The day after the incident, the fire department entered conversations with the Maine Water Company. Rathsack said that the neighborhood is part of the company’s master plan for replacement in 2026, with the project in the planning phase. The company is currently replacing water mains in cities across the state, including Biddeford and Saco.

Brennan said that the company plans to fast-track the Pine Point project in response to this incident.

Until then, the fire department will adapt. They’re going to conduct a flow test at each hydrant. If there’s another fire in the area, engines will hook up to hydrants that are known to have higher water pressure — a slightly different practice than hooking up to the closest hydrant, which is common procedure.

“If we have another fire incident in that area, we’ll want to have a plan in place to make sure we have enough water out of the gate,” Brennan said.

He also said that it may not be a coincidence that water pressure was lower during a time of high occupancy in the Pine Point neighborhood. A lot of the homes are seasonal occupancies, and there’s a higher demand for water in the summer.

“We’ve had fires during the winter time and have not had a need to increase the volume that we were getting,” Brennan said.

The rest of Scarborough is within the Portland Water District’s purview, another water company undertaking a major system revitalization. Beginning in October, the Portland Water District will be replacing nearly all of its 55,000 water meters with the latest technology. The project, estimated to cost $30 million, will be rolled out over the course of the next three years.

The upgrades will strengthen emergency response capabilities, said Michelle Clements, the communications director for the Portland Water District. The new meters will have pressure sensors built into them, making it easier for the water district to closely monitor the system.

“We will be gaining much more insight into our system and how it behaves during distribution and demand,” Clements said.