TOWNSHIP 24 – Maine Forest Service rangers revised the fire damage from Wednesday’s forest fire from 200 to 148 acres after making global position calculations Thursday.

About half of the woodland and some nearby blueberry fields that burned belong to Cherryfield Foods Inc., said Jim Downie, the Maine Forest Service spokesman. The rest of the burned area is believed to belong to a combination of individual out-of-state owners.

The fire eased off Wednesday night, but a crew of 16 was on the scene Thursday to tackle the hot spots.

“I’m sure the rangers will have their eye on the fire for a few days,” Downie said Thursday evening. “They will work on it as long as they have to. It will be warmer and windier on Friday.”

State fire investigators had not yet determined a cause of the fire or even its precise point of origin. Workers reached the site, about two miles south of the Pleasant River Lake, by way of the Fish Hatchery Road in Deblois.

A number of rangers who were off duty on Wednesday were called in to work.

Downie would not speculate on the cost so far of fighting the fire. He noted that Cherryfield Foods had provided labor and equipment, as did several volunteer fire departments in area towns.

The Forest Service will pay for having two Huey helicopters on Wednesday dump water on the fire. Those expenses work out to about $1,000 an hour per helicopter, and each was used for four or five hours Wednesday.

One volunteer firefighter from Columbia was treated for a minor eye injury, Downie said.