HARPSWELL, Maine — Firefighters from several communities headed by boat to Sheep Island in the New Meadows River Friday afternoon for a large woods fire.
Crews from Cundy’s Harbor, Harpswell Islands and Orrs and Bailey Islands fire departments, as well as mutual aid from Brunswick and West Bath and Phippsburg, left from the wharf in Cundy’s Harbor midafternoon, Lt. John Faith of the Brunswick Fire Department said.
By 4:15 p.m., helicopters from the Maine Forest Service were scooping up water from a pond on Dingley Island and dropping it minutes later on the blaze. There was no information about the status of seven seasonal homes on the island.
Coast Guard Sector Northern New England sent cutters from South Portland, according to a spokesman, but they had cleared before 7:30 p.m.
Capt. Mark Wood of the Bath Fire Department said he took dozens of phone calls from people concerned about “such thick smoke” throughout the city until eventually he posted about the fire on the department’s Facebook page.
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