Brush fire in Lubec threatens homes and burns 15 acres

A drier than normal winter, gusting winds and an unfortunate decision to burn a pile of trash led to a large fire in Lubec on March 30. Before the fire was finally out, hours later, 15 acres of grass and woodland had been consumed and numerous homes had been threatened. Residents had obtained a permit to burn, but were cited by Maine Forest Ranger Jasmine Redlexske of the Jonesport office for burning prohibited items.

The fire began on the Dixie Road shortly after noon. A pile of trash being burned had caught the tinder-dry grass in an adjacent field. As men from the Lubec Fire Department arrived, they fanned out and began trying to control the flames, but with the nearest hydrant a mile away on Route 189, water was in short supply. In the first hour, the men were limited to protecting houses and other structures, and trying to keep the fire from moving from the open field into neighboring woods.

As help arrived from the Whiting Fire Department, and then the Campobello Island department, the fire was expanding and threatening other homes. Flames were prevented from attacking the next home downwind, about a quarter mile from the start point, by firemen working with water from tanker trucks, backpack sprayers, even brooms wet in puddles and used to beat out flames along the roadside and at the edge of the field. As the flames roared into the woods nearby, a state helicopter arrived to aid in the fight.

The fire, as it burned across the floor of the woods, would suddenly rush up one of the trees, almost instantly setting the entire trunk alight. "When one of those trees goes up," said a soot-encrusted member of the Lubec department, "it's like a stick of dynamite going off over your head. And you never know which one's going to catch, or just when." As the evergreens caught, the explosive sound could be heard from the road, hundreds of yards away. They looked like huge roman candles, with men visible through the smoke, working to rein in the fire's progress.

The firefighters developed a relay system, with men from the Whiting department manning a hydrant near the Lyons Market on Route 189 and filling tanker trucks to bring enough water onto the fire to control it. A helicopter from the state Forest Service arrived with a bucket suspended beneath and began dipping water out of a nearby pond to drop on the dry woods. Firefighters drew a line around the fire, contracting around the burning area and finally, as darkness fell, putting out the last of the flames.

As the weary firefighters rolled up hose and stored gear away on their trucks, long after dark, one summed up his day. "We stopped it, saved the houses, but it was awfully close. Without the other guys, without the water drops, it could have been a very bad day." Blackened grassland, evergreens no longer green, but scorched to soot, bore mute testimony to the war these volunteer firemen fought against one of the most elemental forces that day.