MINOT — Jeanie Cote stood in her cowboy boots clutching a melted camera among the ashes of what had been her beauty salon.

Upstairs from the charred rubble was her apartment, also destroyed by a Wednesday night fire.

“I lost everything,” she said.

Cote’s home, business, Harley-Davidson motorcycle and snowmobile all burned in the fire. The front bumper and lights on her orange pickup truck parked out front had melted, resembling icicles.

“It brings a whole new meaning to burnt orange,” she said, with a laugh.

Cote said she isn’t sure what she’s going to do about work and where to live. Her insurance company has put her up at a nearby hotel.

Her immediate plan is to buy some new sneakers (her old ones “look pretty gross”) and go for a run.

She had been at a rock concert in Bangor when her father called with the news.

She had moved in less than a year ago, her salon in a remodeled space. Things were going well, she said.

She’s using humor to get through.

“People go through much worse, and it’ll all work out,” she said. “That’s my theory on it.”

Dave Castonguay echoed Cote’s resigned outlook.

The owner of the building said he had bought the property 10 months ago and fixed up the apartments and Cote’s salon.

He had stored vehicles in an attached barn where the fire likely started, he said.

In addition to Cote’s motorcycle and snowmobile, three ATVs, a Kubota tractor, a snowblower and a lawn tractor had been parked in the building.

He provided storage for his daughter and her husband, he said.

He said his plans for the property at 712 West Minot Road are to tear down what’s left of the building.

“It all has to come down,” he said. “It’s gone. It’s a total loss.”

Nobody was hurt in the blaze, which took crews from Minot, Mechanic Falls, Hebron and several other towns to bring under control.

Joseph Thomas, acting fire marshal at the Office of the State Fire Marshal, said the case is officially still under investigation until the final report reaches his desk.

Castonguay said he was told it wasn’t considered suspicious.

An investigator from Cote’s insurance agency appeared on the scene Thursday afternoon. Castonguay said he was still waiting to hear back from his agency, but added he was fully insured.

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