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ORLAND, Maine — Investigators say a Maine man died when he returned to a burning house to get his dog.

Maine Public Safety Department spokesman Steve McCausland says the man escaped with the rest of his family before going back inside Monday evening in the town of Orland. Firefighters recovered his body from the basement hours later, after the fire was extinguished.

Two other adults and two children escaped the fire uninjured.

Assistant Fire Chief Julia Gray says that the survivors told her everyone had escaped but that there were rabbits, cats and a dog inside. Later, she learned someone had gone back in.

Firefighters had to use tanker trucks to haul water to the rural site.