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High Winds, Dry Air Produce Conditions Ripe for Wildfires

April 15, 2009 - WINDHAM -- High winds and dry air contributed to a series of brush fires Monday in southern Maine, where dead grass and other flammable material have been exposed after another long winter of snow cover.

Firefighters in Windham battled a blaze that covered about 1 1/2 acres off Canada Hill Road, pumping water up a 400-foot hill to get at the flames, said Fire Chief Charles Hammond.

In Wales, outside of Lewiston, the Maine Forest Service dispatched a helicopter to drop 240-gallon buckets of water on a fire in the woods to give crews on the ground a chance to extinguish it, said Kent Nelson, fire prevention specialist for the forest service.
That blaze started as a building fire, then spread to the woods, he said.

The fires were among a half-dozen Monday and more than 20 statewide in two days.

"This happens every spring," Nelson said. "We have a certain period of a couple to three weeks where things haven't quite greened up yet – green grass and trees blossoming and the shrubs, which equates with moisture.

"We have the dead grass from last fall that's just been uncovered when the snow melted. Combine that with strong winds and low relative humidity, and it's ripe conditions for a wildfire."

Southern Maine was subject to a red-flag warning Monday, Nelson said, because of wind gusting to 30 mph and relative humidity at 15 percent to 25 percent. The conditions were expected to ease by Monday night.

The Windham fire was apparently ignited by embers left over from a brush pile that had been burned Saturday, when conditions were not nearly as dangerous, Nelson said. The embers sparked kindling and spread to a number of other brush piles that had been stacked for future burning. No one was injured.

Nelson said even people with a burn permit should be careful to make sure the fire has been doused, then raked and doused again 10 minutes later.

"When you get these kinds of weather conditions, the high winds kick the embers around and put them in some dead grass, and you've got a fire," Nelson said. "We are urging people who burned over the weekend to recheck their coals and make sure they are fully out."

Residents also should not empty their ashes from wood stoves right away, but let them sit for a couple of days to make sure there are no live embers, he said.

By DAVID HENCH, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, April 14, 2009


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