Maine Government News
The Maine Forest Service reminds citizens about the
60th anniversary of the 1947 fires in Maine
October 16, 2007
Conservation
Kent Nelson Fire Prevention Specialist (207) 287-4989
Wednesday, October 17th is the 60th anniversary of the start of the 1947 fires in Maine. On this day sixty years ago, over 50 fires were burning in several areas of Maine. The fires were started from human carelessness and would eventually burn over 200,000 acres during one of the driest fall seasons ever re-corded. Also on October 17th, 1947, Governor Hildreth issued a proclamation banning all hunters and campers from recreating in the woods. The dry weather (no rain for 108 days) and high winds created extreme fire conditions that made fire suppression efforts very difficult. Sixteen civilians were killed as a result of the fires and over 2,500 people were left homeless. Over 70 million dollars in property damages were recorded.
The Maine Forest Service encourages citizens of Maine to visit museums and websites that fea-ture displays on “The Week Maine Burned”. Citizens should be reminded of this event (dubbed as Maine’s worst natural disaster) so they are aware that large wildfires have occurred in Maine and (given the right conditions) could occur again.
The Maine Forest Service learned several lessons from “the week Maine burned” and as a result of the 1947 fires aided in:
- Establishing strict open burning laws with tougher penalties.
- Requiring open burning permits and Town Fire Wardens to issue them.
- Creating a law requiring spark arresters on all forestry equipment.
- Establishing designated campsites in unorganized townships to reduce the risk of escaped camp-fires in remote areas.
- Developing statewide fire prevention programs such as Smokey Bear.
- The development of air detection flights to locate forest fires and enforce open burning laws.
- Forming the Northeast Forest Fire Compact in 1949, which is made up of seven Northeast States and four Canadian Provinces. It is the first of its kind in the nation and continues to function to-day.