ELLSWORTH, Maine — High winds and low humidity created potentially dangerous fire conditions across nearly half of Maine on Thursday and hampered efforts to fight a tough-to-reach wildfire in the western mountains.
The National Weather Service, in collaboration with the Maine Forest Service, had issued a red flag warning for all of coastal Maine and much of the southern half of the state from noon to 8 p.m. Thursday.
Lt. Jeff Currier with the Maine Forest Service said conditions looked more favorable for Friday but the decision about whether to issue another red flag warning would be made around 7:30 a.m. Friday.
A red flag warning means that the combination of strong winds, warmer temperatures and low humidity likely create “explosive fire growth potential” for the affected areas.
“Under red flag conditions, it is ill advised to do any type of outdoor burning, be it a campfire or a brush fire,” Currier said. He cautioned, however, that even with a locally issued burn permit, individuals who start fires during unsafe conditions can be held liable or prosecuted if the fires get out of control.
On Thursday, firefighters struggled to reach a small but challenging fire in a mountainous area off of Route 2 in Gilead. Local firefighters and forest rangers had to traverse terrain that includes steep ledges on the side of the mountain to reach the 5-acre fire, which began Wednesday.
“It’s not a very big fire by any means but it is very problematic because of where it is located,” Currier said earlier Thursday. “It is very rugged terrain and we have to factor in the risks of putting people in there.”
The fire was fully contained by 5 p.m., although Currier said rangers will continue to monitor it Friday for any flare-ups.
The Forest Service used one of the agency’s helicopters to drop water on the fire while about two dozen firefighters or rangers worked on the ground, according to the Department of Conservation.
The Forest Service reported about a dozen fires in the state on Wednesday, with most of those located in coastal and southern Maine. Currier said relatively few fires were reported Thursday likely due, in part, to the red flag warning.
Maine’s wildfire season has arrived somewhat early this year due to warmer-than-normal temperatures, high winds and the lack of snow cover in many areas.
Big foot find a way to start fires? : ) How do these fires start in cold weather in the mountians anyways?
Fires start just as well in any temperature that you’d typically find.
Ive even heard of them being started by broken glass the glass acts as a magfine glass
Pretty vague… But how do these fires start ? Wollydevil has a point seems to be more to this issue I mean sun really hasn’t been that scortching and temperature has been only about 44 degrees I find it weird
would that be considered evolution lol
I remember the days when fires were purposely set “downeast” to burn the blueberry barrens. And there were times when they burned a lot more than was intended. The last serious/significant fires we had in Maine were in 1947 – 65 years ago.
My guess would be after talking with some friends from Gilead it was started by a hiker up on the appalachian trail probably didn’t extinguish his fire good not positive thats it could also be lightning too but they also said there was no lightning yesterday that they heard and they live rate buy where the fire is there are alot of early season hikers
Your friends are wrong the fire was no were near the appalachian trail on tv they said it was in a revain at Little Bear mt. This is according to the Portland Paper ive check three maps to see an like i said its no were near an on tv they said that fire fighters has to hike 1,000 ft in to get to the fire. Now if it was a fire at a camp site on the AT the area around the camp site would be burned no mentions of that ? This is a up date
none of this is surprising really we are going to see alot more this summer i bet spring came very early not alot of snow my yard is almost completly dry already. hope we get alot of rain or we gonna be in trouble with drought and fires.