PARIS — A permitted fire intended to destroy a torn-down barn ended up gutting the nearby unoccupied house on High Street on Monday afternoon. 

No one was injured and there was no one living in the house at the time, which had been cleared of belongings, according to its owner, Willie Buffington, deputy chief of the Paris Fire Department.

Flames quickly engulfed the house that Buffington said had been empty for about a year.

Buffington, who has worked for over 50 years as a firefighter in Paris, said he obtained a burning permit to destroy the remnants of the barn. From the barn, the flames ignited the nearby house, which fire Chief Brad Frost described as old and dry.

Frost suspected the building was not insured.

Outdoor burning permits are licensed through the Maine Forest Service and require safeguards to minimize the risk of spreading, including a minimum of 50 feet between the fire and any structure, a hose and no fires between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. unless it’s raining, as it was Monday morning.

Buffington said the distance between the pile of barn rubble and the house was about 10 feet and that before he knew it, the fire got away from him.

“I was planning on tearing (the house) down anyway,” he said.

Crews from Norway and Paris responded around noon after a neighbor called 911. An excavator tore down what was still standing of the house.

The street was closed for a few hours early Monday afternoon. Frost said some residents lost cable and phone service.

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