Forest fire under control

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    DANFORTH — Officials from the Maine Forest Service and the Danforth Fire Department remained busy Tuesday working to control a stubborn forest fire in a remote area near East Grand Lake. Firefighters from the Moosehorn Wildlife Refuge were also dispatched to the scene.
    According to Kent Nelson, fire prevention specialist in Augusta, the fire was originally thought to encompass a five-acre area, but spread to 10- acres before it was controlled Monday evening.
    A forest ranger pilot has also dropped several buckets of water on the fire and helped crews find their way in. The fire is in an active timber harvest area on a steep ridge. No structures have been threatened.
    On Tuesday morning, two inmate crews from the Charleston Correctional Facility were brought in to assist with “mop up” duties, which were expected to take a couple of days, Nelson said.
    The fire, which proved to be difficult to fight due to the rocky terrain, was believed to have started when a skidder, harvesting lumber in the area, rolled over.
    “With the forest floor being so dry, it wouldn’t take much more than a spark to ignite,” Nelson said. “In the last several days, the Maine Forest Service has observed a significant drying trend in the forests, in particular, needles, leaves and small twigs on the forest floor. This could make fires like this difficult and very time consuming to fully extinguish.”
    A representative of the Forestry Department in New Brunswick reported the fire.
    “We work with the other states and [Canadian] provinces as part of the Northeast Fire Compact,” Nelson said. “We had a smoke detection [Civil Air] flight in the area and we had him fly over that way to get the GPS [Global Positioning Satellite] coordinates.”
    Most areas of the state are currently listed as having moderate to high fire danger. To view the fire dangers, visit http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/firedanger/fire.shtml.
    “Campers and those working in the woods with machinery are urged to use extreme caution,” Nelson said. “All campfires should be thoroughly extinguished and checked several times before leaving the area. Those wishing to burn brush piles are asked to wait until we get a significant rainfall.”
    Nelson encouraged individuals to report any signs of smoke coming from wooden areas by calling 287-4989.