![]() ![]() They began to use standard equipment and to train to national standards. As a result, many Maine towns established volunteer firefighting departments within the next two years. 13, 1948, officials held a statewide firefighting and prevention conference in Augusta. Acadia’s forests now turn to red and yellow autumn colors instead of the monochromatic green that reigned before the Maine fires. It wiped out mature spruce and fir stands and replaced them with sun-loving birch, aspen and oak. The fire changed the composition of the forests in Acadia National Park. The fire destroyed 17,188 acres, including 10,000 in Acadia. It was declared under control on October 27, but smoldered underground until November 14.įive people in Bar Harbor died as a result of the fire – two in a car crash and two of heart attacks. The fire continued to destroy acres of forest and the Jackson Laboratory before it blew itself out over the ocean in a fireball. Sparks pelted the cars and flames flared overhead, but the motorcade made it to safety. When fire blocked all the roads, fishermen from Winter Harbor, Gouldsboro and Lamoine evacuated 400 people by sea.īy 9 pm, bulldozers carved a pathway was through the rubble on Route 3 and 700 cars carrying 2,000 people slowly drove to Ellsworth. Rescueīar Harbor residents fled for their safety, first to the athletic field then to the town pier. The fires missed the business district but destroyed 170 homes and five grand historic hotels near downtown. Fire engulfed 67 seasonal estates known as Millionaire’s Row on the shores of Frenchman Bay. That afternoon, the wind strengthened and turned toward Bar Harbor, traveling six miles in less than three hours. The next day nearly 2,300 acres burned on Mt. Firefighting crews were joined by the Army Air Corps, the Navy, the Coast Guard, National Park Service workers from the East Coast and students from the University of Maine and Bangor Theological Seminary. Then on October 21, strong winds spread the blaze until it consumed over 2,000 acres in Acadia National Park that day alone. For three days it blackened only 169 acres. Gilbert notified Bar Harbor fire officials of the smoke on October 20, the fire smoldered underground. Photo courtesy Library of Congress.Īfter Mrs. Blaine, was one of many destroyed by the Maine fires along Millionaire’s Row in Bar Harbor. then swept toward the sea and consumed swathes of Alfred, Lyman, Newfield, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Arundel, Dayton, Wells, Biddeford and Saco. In York County, the fires destroyed most of the homes in Shapleigh and Waterboro. In North Waterboro, nearly 60 residents and volunteers were trapped for more than an hour behind a line of fire before escaping. Volunteers came from all over Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.Īn eight-mile-long wall of fire burned in Kennebunkport. Men who went to work in small towns didn’t know if they’d be called on to fight the Maine fires that day. When the alarm went out, men and boys dropped what they were doing and rushed off to fight the fires. Three days later, many Maine towns were covered with a smoky haze and smelled of burning wood. By October 16, 20 separate Maine fires were burning. There was no warning system, no mutual aid agreement and no centralized command and control structure.īy early October, Maine was in a ‘high state of inflammability.’ People were urged to clean their chimneys and the Forest Service reopened fire watch towers normally closed on September 30.įires broke out during the first week in October in Portland, Bowdoin and Wells. Most towns didn’t have a fire department. Ninety percent of the state was forested, and the state had made little preparation for fighting wildfires. Mid-July to October were unusually dry, with 108 consecutive days without rain. An abnormally warm spring caused snow to melt early in the woods. Warning signs of the Maine fires appeared as early as March. The Malvern, one of the five elegant hotels destroyed in the Maine fires of 1947. ![]()
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