Brush fire investigation stalls

Sparks from spent fireworks likely smoldered overnight before erupting into a raging brush fire last Thursday. (Harrison Thorp photo)

LEBANON - A Maine Forest Service official said on Tuesday last week’s brush fire caused by fireworks should be a wake-up call that when people are done lighting them off they should stick around until they are sure there is no fire danger from emitted sparks.

Kent Nelson, a Fire Prevention Specialist, also said it’s unlikely they will ever find out who was responsible for setting off the fireworks that sparked a mammoth brush fire in West Lebanon last week and even less likely they would be able to force the guilty parties to reimburse the town for costs associated with dousing the blaze.

Nelson said the people who set off the fireworks are “probably come and gone” though he said Forest Ranger Claudette Desautel continues to interview neighbors in an effort to track the suspects.

Nelson said he hoped the public would aid in the investigation.

“If anyone saw anything like a license plate or something else that would help,” he said. He said several neighbors interviewed said they heard the fireworks going off, but thought nothing of it.

Last Thursday’s brush fire in the woods off T.M. Wentworth Road and West Shore Drive scorched seven acres of land. It took more than 50 firefighters from a dozen or so communities most of the day to bring the fire under control.

Nelson said it is very likely the people who lighted the fireworks on Wednesday night around 9 p.m. may have left the area not knowing sparks were smoldering in the dried leaves and timber ready to flare the next day.

To try to recoup any money spent in the firefighting effort you would have to prove the fire was set intentionally, he said, adding that since fireworks were legalized in Maine in January 2012 it makes intent harder to prove.

Nelson said they were trying to get hold of the landowner to see if anyone had been given permission to set off fireworks on their property.

Nelson said several towns in the Augusta area had enacted local ordinances that prohibited fireworks except on Class 1 days.

Last week’s fire came amid a string of Class 4 fire days, which means very high fire danger.

“It’s probably a good idea,” he said.