3 Maine firefighters assist in Colorado

AUGUSTA – As with most things, when fighting fires, practice makes perfect.

Recent Colorado forest fires provided an opportunity for three Maine forest service rangers to join 500 other firefighters in getting more practice while helping a community in need.

Maine Forest Service Rangers Jeffery Currier, 33, of Machias and Ritchie Hafford, 32, of Lincoln returned Monday from a 13-day stint as strike team leaders at the Bucktail Complex near Naturita, Colo.

When the men left Maine for Colorado on Wednesday, May 22, the fire they were assigned to was not contained. Upon return at Bangor International Airport on Monday, Hafford reported that the fire was under control.

“We saw the fire we were on all the way to the end,” Hafford said.

While in Colorado, the rangers were in charge of up to 25 firefighters and responded to critical hot spots, primarily along fire perimeters.

Hafford compared the experience to being a doctor. “The more cases a doctor sees, the more skilled he or she may become.” Similarly, the more experience the rangers get, the more techniques they learn and the more skills they acquire.

“We get a lot of experience,” Currier said. “We get to try techniques that they use out there that are different from us here in Maine.”

Currier explained that techniques used in fighting forest fires in Maine are more technology-based and it’s nice to be able to share some of these techniques while helping others.

The third forest ranger, Doug Huettner of Greenville, did not return with the other two men. Instead, he went on to Alaska, arriving early Monday morning. There he will act as a field observer near the Chain of Hot Springs and the West Fork Chenna Fire, which is close to the Alaska-Canada border. Huettner is expected to remain in Alaska for up to 14 days.