This morning Vickie Hamilton Bento looked out her apartment window and saw fire trucks arriving at the low income-rental Munjoy Hill South. She also smelled smoke. As she often did she thought it was the smell of the narrow gauge railroad across Fore Street. But when Vickie realized it wasn’t coming from there, she ran outside and saw smoke coming from a neighbor’s vent. She pounded on the doors of two neighbors to tell them to get out because of fire. The neighbors were Linda Trott York (daughter of the late Marie Trott) and Valerie Morgan. They left.

Fire fighters went up onto the roof of one unit and cut a whole in it and went down into the attic were the fire was ablaze. Probably it was caused by an electrical fire started by a malfunctioning fan in one of the two units affected. The Red Cross showed up quickly and was making arrangements for the two families for the immediate future.

But what the displaced families did not know yet was that Coreen Lauren, property manager, had already made plans for them to move into recently renovated apartments early next week. The two units had been planned for other families, but they will have to wait a little longer she said.

Three engines and 2 ladder trucks were used to battle the one alarm fire. They came from the Munjoy Hill Station and from the Bramhall Station.

Last year the Maine Housing Townhouses Inc. purchased the complex for $13 million. It must remain for low-income renters until 2042.