A firefighter walks toward a portable water tank used to extinguish a woods fire at 11 Yeaton Lane in West Paris on Friday afternoon. Up to 75 firefighters from 12 departments responded to bring the flames under control. Jon Bolduc/Sun Journal
WEST PARIS — Two state agencies are investigating the cause of a shed fire that spread to four acres of woods Friday afternoon at 11 Yeaton Lane, Fire Chief Troy Billings said.
Between 60 and 70 firefighters from 12 departments worked in hot weather and faced flames 25 to 30 feet high at times, the chief said. A few got overheated and had to take a break, he said.
The fire was reported at 3:43 p.m. on property that had no other buildings, Billings said. The name of the property owner was not immediately available.
By the time the first crew arrived, the shed was gone and flames were moving into the woods.
Billings said seven members of his department were out of the station with a truck minutes after the call.
“We got pretty beat up for a while until help showed up,” he said, describing the effort to extinguish the flames.
They ran out of water early on and had to wait for supplies from nearby Moose Pond, he said.
At one point the wind changed direction and flames shot 25 to 35 feet into trees and along the tops of them, he said.
“We got lucky the fire burned to the pond,” Billings said.
The flames were under control in just under two hours.
He credited departments from West Paris, Woodstock, Sumner, Greenwood, Norway, Paris, Waterford, Oxford, Otisfield, Hebron, Poland and Harrison for their efforts.
“Everybody did a great job,” Billings said. “I’m super appreciative of everybody.”
He said over half the members of his department responded.
Billings and some of them will return Saturday morning to check for hot spots.
Investigators from the Office of the State Fire Marshal ad the Maine Forest Service are in charge of determining the cause, he said.
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