FORT FAIRFIELD — A woman is unaccounted for after a fire swept through a three-story house Monday morning, officials said.

The fire, reported at 4 a.m., flattened the large former farmhouse, which had been converted into two apartments. An excavator was being used to assist the recovery efforts, and most of the fire rubble had fallen into the basement of the home.

The victim is believed to be an elderly woman who lived at the 34 Densmore Road home in Fort Fairfield, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Search efforts were hampered by the cold temperature; it was 5 below zero at the site in Aroostook County, McCausland said.

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