HARTFORD — Crews are expected to continue efforts Wednesday to extinguish a “stubborn” underground fire on Little Pinnacle Mountain, an official said Tuesday.
There were no injuries, and the fire does not pose a threat to homeowners, Maine Forest Ranger Jay Bernard said Tuesday afternoon.
The scene is about 2½ miles from Route 219.
Bernard said labor-intensive efforts to battle the blaze — at times only visible through smoke escaping from 6 inches underground — had confined it to a small section of a steep rocky ledge. It was declared under control Tuesday evening, he said.
The fire appears to have started accidentally from an unattended campfire this past weekend, he said. It was discovered Monday afternoon and had burned more than three acres by Monday evening, despite efforts by area fire departments.
The underground blaze — known as a ‘duff fire’ to firefighters — spreads through layers of dry, decomposing forest material such as needles and leaves, which cover the soil. Fires can smoulder in the material for days before developing into a full-blown surface fire by spreading through systems of tree roots.
“There’s only one word to describe duff fires: stubborn,” Bernard said.
Ground crews extinguished much of the visible fire by churning the earth and mixing it with a foam substance “wetter than water,” Bernard said.
Proving elusive to those efforts was an area of rocky ledges where a helicopter with a 300-gallon payload could be seen dropping water Tuesday afternoon. The terrain is too dangerous for technical climbers, Bernard said.
“We have to get this section contained so it doesn’t spread. In that, we’ve been largely successful,” he said.
Efforts to contain the blaze took a major turn Tuesday morning after crews calculated pressure rates to pump water from a tanker parked approximately a half mile from the containment area. That allowed firefighters to douse the ground.
Transporting water up the mountain proved difficult because it is largely only accessible from an ATV trail. Thirty or so volunteers from neighboring towns had to trek up with five-gallon water packs.
Firefighters were assisted by 15 students from the Region 9 School of Applied Technology in Mexico, who were observing and supporting the water supply efforts.
The investigation into the cause of the fire is continuing and those responsible could end up paying the bill for fighting it, Bernard said.
ccrosby@sunjournal.com
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- Flames burn a section of Little Pinnacle Mountain in Hartford on Tuesday afternoon. The forest fire is believed to have been smoldering since this past weekend and was contained by Tuesday afternoon.
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