33 departments respond to fire Bucksport blaze threatens homes

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BUCKSPORT – Firefighters from 33 departments from Penobscot, Hancock and Waldo counties battled a wind-driven forest fire Monday that threatened more than a dozen homes along Route 15 and forced the evacuation of some of them.

Bucksport Fire Chief Gene Weston was among the first firefighters on the scene and called back to the station for as much help as he could get.

“We needed personnel and we needed them quick,” he said.

The fire started in a blueberry field located in the woods about a quarter of a mile off Route 15 between Willins Orchard and the Town Farm Road. The field had been burned Friday, according to Weston, but apparently had flared up sometime Monday morning. By the time firefighters were alerted, the fire already threatened nearby homes.

“The first thing we had to do was to protect the houses,” Weston said. According to the chief, firefighters placed a pumper and a tanker in the driveway of every threatened house.

According to Assistant Chief Craig Bowden, about 15 homes along Route 15 were threatened at different times during the fire.

“In some spots, the fire burned to within 20 feet of some of them,” Bowden said. “But we didn’t lose any of them.” Route 15 from the Town Farm Road to the International Paper Co. mill was closed from before noon until about 9 p.m.

The crews were able to protect the homes, but initially were not able to prevent the fire from spreading. Strong, gusting winds blew the smoke and fire southward, parallel to Route 15 in the direction of a more populated section of the road closer to the downtown.

Early on, the fire burned all the way to Route 15 near the home of Howard Cottrell and jumped the highway near a railroad crossing.

“The fire didn’t burn across the road,” said Cottrell’s daughter-in-law Cleo Cottrell of Verona. “It just flew up into the air and the trees just exploded. Those big pine trees just caught right on.”

That scene was repeated several times in different areas of the fire scene, which spread across an area about a half-mile long. David Vance, who lives on Route 15 near the blueberry field, said he saw treetops just burst into flames along the edge of the field.

“You could see heavy, black smoke up in the woods just beyond the field,” Vance said. “The smoke came up and then the flames leapt up just as one of the helicopters came in.”

The swirling winds made it difficult to fight the fire, and on occasions it blew the fire in different directions, threatening to encircle firefighters on the ground.

“The wind changed about four times on us, ” said Capt. Michael Denning of the Bucksport Fire Department. “We’d think we had it under control and it’d shift and blow it right back on us.”

One crew was in a field fighting the fire as it burned toward them. The crew held its ground until the Maine Forest Service helicopters arrived with water.

“They dropped their first load right in front of us,” Denning said. “Those guys were squirming a little in there, but they held their ground.”

Help arrived from all over Hancock, Penobscot and parts of Waldo counties, with crews coming from as far away as Winter Harbor, Acadia National Park and Deer Isle to the east and south, and from Bangor, Hampden and Levant to the north and west.

There were more than 20 tankers at the scene, and at one point 17 of them were ferrying water from hydrants near the International Paper Co. mill, a distance of about 2 miles from the fire scene. While crews fought the blaze on the ground, two helicopters from the state’s Forest Service drew water from the Penobscot River and a nearby lake, and dropped it on the leading edge of the fire, helping to keep it from reaching homes.

The Forest Service also sent rangers and specialized fire equipment to the scene.

None of the residents was injured in the blaze, but several, including Howard Cottrell, were evacuated from their homes.

Cottrell had hung laundry earlier and when he looked out the window, he thought the fog had rolled in off the river.

“I couldn’t see nothing,” he said.

When he stepped outside, he smelled the smoke and went back to call the fire department. That was just as the fire chief arrived.

“He drove up and he said to me, ‘I want you out of here,'” Cottrell said.

He was reluctant to leave, but he called his son, piled some clothes, his medicine and a few valuables into a sheet and left. He watched the fire for awhile from across the road.

“The smoke was so thick, there were times you couldn’t see the house from across the road,” he said.

He watched the fire burn within 50 feet of his house and saw a large pine tree out back burst into flames.

“I figured everything was gone,” he said. “I wouldn’t have given anything for the house at that time.”

Firefighters had the main fire knocked down by midafternoon, but were pestered by flare-ups and spot fires throughout the rest of the day.

“We’re racing the daylight,” Weston said as firefighters strove to douse as many of those spot fires and smoldering areas as they could before dark.

Crews reported that the area was covered with at least two inches of “duff,” or dried leaves and other flammable materials, making it difficult to make sure the fire was out.

“You put out one fire here and two or three others pop up just a few feet away,” said one firefighter.

Fire crews ran hundreds of feet of hose up into the blueberry field and through the woods to reach the fire. They dug trenches by hand around the perimeter and then two bulldozers knocked down a firebreak along the burned area.

Although the fire appeared to be under control early Monday evening, firefighters were hoping for a good heavy rain that would thoroughly soak the area. Rain clouds gathered throughout the afternoon, but rain never fell.

“Recent showers have done little if anything to reduce the potential of wildfires in Maine,” said Jim Downey of the Forest Service. “A good inch of rain will be required to help lessen the dangers for the short term.”

A strong low-pressure system moved through the Gulf of Maine on Monday, bringing strong northerly winds that gusted up to 40 mph. A few spot outages were reported by electric companies but the main problems caused by the winds were continued drying of already parched land areas.

By Monday afternoon, the National Weather Service in Caribou had “red-flagged” central-northern portions of the state for weather conditions that would be conducive to spreading fires. The areas flagged included southern Piscataquis, southern and central Penobscot counties, and interior Hancock County where the Bucksport fire took place.

The Maine Forest Service placed the entire state in a “Class 4” category, which is very high for fire danger.

Rain was expected to spread over the state Monday night but the amount expected, about a quarter of an inch, was not enough to quell the fire danger.

The entire state has been “abnormally dry” since the first of May, according to Greg Zielinski, Maine state climatologist. Located at the University of Maine, Zielinski said the quick warming period experienced in early May helped evaporate a lot of water and contributed to the dry conditions.

Fire crews expected to remain on the scene into the early morning hours and planned to be back checking for hotspots Tuesday morning.

The dry conditions and the wind made it a particularly difficult fire to fight, according to Capt. Denning.

“We had flames going 70 feet in the air,” Denning said. “We had a wall of fire that crossed Route 15 in three spots. Given the amount of fire there was, I’d say this was an unbelievable stop.