Blueberry firm won’t appeal fire damage order

MACHIAS – Allen’s Blueberry Freezer Inc. of Ellsworth won’t appeal a Washington County Superior Court order to pay the town of Steuben and two landowners for damage from an April 1999 fire that burned 200 acres, according to the company’s attorney.

Attorney Bruce Mallonee of Bangor said Allen’s does not agree with Justice Donald Marden’s finding that the cause of the fire was a rekindling of a blueberry field the company had burned the day before the fire.

“But they’ll pay this and move on,” Mallonee said Thursday.

Contrary to what was previously published, Marden ordered Allen’s to pay the town of Steuben $2,000 for fire suppression costs.

The town presented itemized bills for $55,463.83 during last November’s three-day civil trial in Washington County Superior Court, but Marden ruled that state statute limits restitution to a municipality to $2,000.

Marden did order the company to pay Carl and Martha Hurtig of Cohasset, Mass., $28,482 for damage to 100 acres of forest on the 525 acres they own in Steuben.

The judge also ordered the company to pay Richard and Iona Coffin of Steuben $5,933 for the loss of 20 acres of forest.

The Hurtigs, the Coffins and the town sued the Ellsworth blueberry company in February 2000, almost a year after April 1999 fire that destroyed 200 acres and caused the evacuation of residents on the Dyer Bay Road.

Marden, who presided over the nonjury civil trial, noted the testimony of company employees who said they had finished burning a blueberry field at approximately 2 p.m. the day before the fire and that personnel had stayed on the scene until after dark to extinguish “smokes” – wisps of smoke coming out of the ground indicating a continuing fire.

Marden also referred to testimony that the crew returned early the next morning and extinguished some smokes before leaving at approximately 10:30 a.m. A member of the crew was directed to check the field that afternoon, but the fire started before he returned.

The judge said, however, that weather conditions and the location of the field indicated a need for constant monitoring and that the morning crew left just as it was likely that winds were reaching their highest peak of the day.

A ranger from the Maine Forest Service testified during the trial that 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. is the most susceptible rekindling time because of the stages of combustibility and the likely winds.

The blueberry field was the highest point of land in the area and was surrounded by forestland, providing a terrain that was particularly susceptible to wind conditions, Marden said in his order.

The justice noted the “devotion” of company crews in checking the perimeter of the field, but said that was somewhat negated by the danger of lack of control in the middle of the burn.

Marden’s order also noted the extremely high fire conditions in Washington County in the spring of 1999, referring to testimony that rainfall for the month of April was 0.06 inches and that at the time the company applied for a burn permit, there had been nine recent woods and field fires in Washington County.