GORHAM - A large house at 297 Fort Hill Road was severely damaged by a two-alarm fire this morning. No one was home when it started.

The house, valued at about $650,000, sustained around $500,000 in damages, said Ken Fickett, deputy chief of the Gorham Fire Department.

Fickett said the fire was reported shortly after 10 a.m. by someone driving on nearby Route 114, which was closed for several hours while fire crews worked. He said the fire apparently started from either a spark or a log rolling out of an open fireplace. The carpet caught fire and then the fire spread to the walls.

By the time fire crews arrived, Fickett said, flames could be seen through windows on the first and second floors. The second floor eventually collapsed.

It took firefighters about an hour to get the fire under control. Fickett said wind gusts of up to 40 mph hampered the crews, which included firefighters from Windham and Westbrook and rescue crews from Standish.

A Gorham firefighter, Dean Bellanger, was injured when he fell from the first floor to the basement, Fickett said. He was treated at Maine Medical Center, but his injuries were not serious.

The family of four that lived in the house had left about two hours before the fire was reported, Fickett said.