AUGUSTA — City firefighters were busy Thursday morning putting out a small, but hard-to-reach brush fire in Bond Brook Recreation Area, the apparent result of a campfire that was started several days ago but never properly extinguished.
It took firefighters about four hours to douse the fire, which was reported at 9:45 a.m. and ultimately burned about a half-acre, said Chief Roger Audette of the Augusta Fire Department.
On Thursday, the Forest Service indicated the fire risk across the state was class 2, or moderate.
The fire fighting took so long because the fire was on a steep, wooded slope that wasn’t near a road, requiring firefighters to make multiple trips with an all-terrain vehicle and a pick-up truck equipped with a water pump, Audette said. The department responded to the fire from a public works garage off North Street.
Because the fire had burned into the ground, the department also had to dig up the terrain around the burn site to make sure there weren’t any hidden embers.
Forest Ranger Darrell Rich of the Maine Forest Service said he found that a campfire started several days ago continued to smolder and re-ignited this morning, sparking the blaze. No one was present when firefighters responded, so Rich has not been able to identify who is responsible.
The situation was similar to a woods fire the department responded to off Civic Center Drive about three weeks ago, in which someone had established a campsite near the blaze location, Audette said.
He called the failure to completely extinguish those campfires “negligent.”
“There’s a lot of cost associated with the fire department being tied up for four hours,” said Audette. “That makes it harder to respond to different areas.”
For those wanting to make sure they have extinguished a fire, he advised pouring water over the fire pit and using a rake to turn the coals over. He cautioned against starting fires in areas far from water or where you don’t have permission to start a burn.
The department responded to several other minor incidents Wednesday, including a smoking electric appliance at the Inn at City Hall, but which had been ventilated by the time firefighters arrived.
After a woods fire in Starks last month, Forest Ranger Mark Rousseau remarked that the fire risk has been abnormally high this spring, leading to fires starting from things that wouldn’t typically start them, such as sparks from machinery.
“If you absolutely have to do any outside burning, make sure that you wait until conditions are suitable,” Rousseau said. “It really takes very little to spark a fire.”
Charles Eichacker — 621-5642
Twitter: @ceichacker
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