ARGYLE – A handful of residents on Route 116 hemmed in a small woods fire Friday afternoon, and authorities said they were trying to determine whether a woman found on the ground nearby was connected to the fire.

Alton firefighters were called to a stretch of Route 116 that runs between the Penobscot River and thick woods about 10 miles from the intersection of Route 16. Fearing the fire was on the heavily wooded side of the road, Alton firefighters called for backup even before getting to the scene.

They found neighbors throwing dirt and gravel onto the fire and removing anything burnable in its path, effectively making a fire line, reported Alton Assistant Fire Chief Jim Feero. Between the road, the water and the fire line, the fire was cut off, limited to a roughly 30-foot-by-30-foot area along a steep embankment.

Firefighters doused the charred ground with an estimated 1,000 gallons of water, making sure that the fire was out and wouldn’t flare up, Feero said.

A few hundred feet up the road, Feero found a woman lying on the ground and he radioed for an ambulance and for a state trooper to investigate. He declined to comment further. The woman was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center by an Old Town ambulance.

Feero said he couldn’t say whether the two incidents were related.