|John Terhune, Portland Press Herald|
The dispatcher on the phone pleaded with Keith “Tater” Forest to grab the boy and get out of the smoking house while he still could.
Forest, 51, felt his lungs beginning to fail as he choked on thick, white smoke. He didn’t see how they could get the unmoving body of his neighbor Lado Lodoka, 44, out of the utility room and away from the scattered remains of the exploded boiler.
He tried to pass along the dispatcher’s message to Lodoka’s young son: “We have to go. The fire department will be here soon.”
But the boy would not leave his dad behind. Instead, he charged again into the heat, Forest following behind.
In the days since Lodoka’s death on Saturday afternoon, members of Maine’s South Sudanese community have mourned the man they say was a beloved friend, father and leader.
Lodoka had been working on the oil-fired burner that heated his home at 1342 Intervale Road in New Gloucester when it exploded Saturday, setting the house on fire.
A spokesperson for the Office of Maine State Fire Marshal on Monday attributed the explosion to “thermal runaway” – the furnace became overloaded with fuel, causing a buildup in pressure that resulted in a steam explosion. Keep reading in Portland Press Herald
