Kilgore said the town paid $190,000 for the nearly one-acre double lot at 571 Maine Ave. It is located next to Gosline’s Hardware on the Kennebec River side of Maine Avenue, also known as U.S. Route 201 and Route 27.

The current residents, who have lived in a house on the property for decades, have several weeks to vacate the property, Kilgore said. The plan, Kilgore said, is to have the property cleared sometime this fall.

According to the department, in the last 4 years, they have lost 3 firefighters to cancer. Two of those firefighters were Nathaniel Crump and Gavin Wright.

Crump passed away from colon cancer this past July at the age of 30.

“The only thing that linked him to something was the bad things firefighters breathe in on a daily basis when they’re at work,” said Crump