Stubborn forest fire scorches 25 acres Steep terrain takes toll on firefighters

TOWNSHIP 3 RANGE 7 – A forest fire started more than a week ago by lightning on Deasey Mountain, just west of Stacyville in Penobscot County, had burned about 25 acres by Tuesday.

The size of the fire was posing less of a problem to firefighters than the terrain, according to Bill Greaves, district ranger for the East Branch District of the Maine Forest Service in Island Falls.

“It’s really a hard place to be,” Greaves said Tuesday. “Physically, it just wears people out.

“It’s steep enough where there are places you can’t stand up without holding on,” he said. “You’re working down over 15-foot cliffs and rocks.”

The fire was one of several started by a line of thunderstorms that passed across Piscataquis, Penobscot and Aroostook counties on Aug. 18. Lightning from the storms sparked more than two dozen forest fires. More fires were still showing up this week.

On Tuesday, about 35 firefighters, including 12 inmates from the Charleston Correctional Center in Charleston, the East Branch Hot Shots based in Island Falls, and five rangers, were working on the Deasey Mountain fire.

Rangers were contemplating bringing in more inmates on Wednesday from the Downeast Correctional Center in Bucks Harbor. Rangers from other parts of the state were brought in to relieve their counterparts in northern Maine.

The fire was being fought only during daylight hours because “it’s too dangerous to work at night,” Greaves said of the terrain.

Because of the steep landscape, all of the firefighting equipment has to be carried in by hand, including more than 11/2miles of fire hose, six portable pumps and gasoline for those pumps.

“It can take an hour just to go from the staging area to the fire area,” Greaves said, adding that the rise in elevation between the two areas is 1,500 feet.

At one point on Sunday, firefighters thought they had the fire contained, only to have it break out later when trees started torching, Greaves said, using a term to describe an evergreen tree that burns rapidly like a torch.

He said Monday was the first day that firefighters were able to maintain full control of the fire all day.

“We’re in mop-up stage right now,” Greaves said. “If we can hold it through today, we’re looking good.”