SEAL HARBOR — Fire officials say the 17-year-old son of former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell accidentally started a wildfire that burned about an acre in Maine.
The Portland Press Herald reports the fire charred woods and fields on his father’s property in Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island on Sunday.
Mount Desert Fire Chief Mike Bender says the teen was playing with a cigarette lighter when he set a pile of pine needles on fire just before 6 p.m. The blaze quickly spread and firefighters from six towns responded to the scene.
Firefighters brought the fire under control in about 45 minutes.
Bender says Mitchell’s summer home wasn’t damaged and his son won’t be charged.
Mitchell wasn’t home at the time of the fire.
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