WOOLWICH, Maine — On Sept. 24, 2018, John Walker stood outside his home in the historic Sebenoa Hall that once held fairs, suppers and dances, and watched it burn to the ground.

As Walker stood outside the burning structure that day, he watched his life go up in flames. But he could never have imagined the following eight months would bring even more heartache as he struggled to clean up the property and comply with town ordinances.





After several neighbors complained that the condition of the property violated a town ordinance giving a landowner 60 days from a fire to remove the ‘ruins,” Woolwich Codes Enforcement Officer Bruce Engert sent Walker a letter in December 2018 ordering him to comply.

Walker spent $65,000 and bought an excavator, determined to do the work himself. Retired from the U.S. Navy after 20 years, he had worked as a handyman for a local resident, but quit his job to focus on his property.

“My life was buried there,” he said.

Walker spent two days on his hands and knees in the ashes near the bedroom where he and his wife, Jerri, slept.