BANGOR — Vandals kicked a hole in the middle of hand-carved sign early Saturday morning and trampled on more than 100 hours of work by local firefighters.

“You can see footprints on it,” Bangor fire Capt. Richard Brooks said of the redwood sign that formerly hung at the Hose 5 Fire Museum on State Street.

Brooks said that firefighters wanted a unique sign for the museum and the handcrafted piece of work had been at the building for only about a month.

“We’ve been wanting a quality sign,” he said.

“It kind of kicks the feet right out from underneath you,” Brooks added.

The fire captain said the sign was damaged between midnight and 3 a.m. Saturday. According to a Bangor Police Department report, there are no suspects in the case.

Brooks said the sign would have cost about $2,600 if the Fire Department had hired a carver to make it. However, firefighters donated their time to carve and paint the sign, and about $600 in fund-raising dollars covered the cost of materials.

Firefighter Tim Witham spent about 80 hours carving the 4-foot-by-6-foot sign last winter, and said he will now try to repair it. Witham was not optimistic about restoring the sign to its original quality.

“Now I gotta see if I can put it back together,” he said.