ELLSWORTH – City firefighters on Monday extinguished a woodpile fire before it could spread to a storage facility at the Patten Pond Camping Resort on the Bucksport Road.

No one was injured in the early afternoon fire.

Deputy Fire Chief Jon Marshall blamed the blaze on the carelessness of resort employees who routinely dump ashes from fire pits into a gravel pit on the complex.

The ashes were dumped just before noon Monday and apparently had not been well doused by the workers.

When the employees returned from lunch at about 12:30 p.m., they found a nearby pile of wood debris on fire and the wind whipping it toward a Quonset hut used for storage by the campground, Marshall said Monday after his crew of 11 firefighters cleared the area at about 2 p.m.

The campground employees had tried to put the fire out with a garden hose, but quickly realized they needed professional help. Marshall said firefighters pumped about 5,000 gallons of water from Patten Pond to douse the fire.

The woodpile contained brush and wood waste and measured about 75 feet in length, Marshall said. About half the pile was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived. The pile was 15 to 20 feet deep at the deepest point, he said.

The camping resort’s general practice is to drench the hot ashes and then stir them up to be sure they are safe to dump, Marshall said. They apparently did not ensure that Monday’s load was safe before leaving for lunch.