RUMFORD — An improperly discarded cigarette burned a deck at a Route 2 house and half an acre of woods and brush early Saturday afternoon, Deputy fire Chief Richard Coulombe said.

There wasn’t enough evidence for any charges to be filed, Maine Forest Service Ranger Jay Bernard said afterward at the Rumford fire station.

No one was injured. Bernard estimated damage at $500 to the deck at Travis Martin’s house at 1138 Route 2. He said the fire suppression cost was $231.83, “because we’re that good.”

The call came in at 12:50 p.m. while Rumford’s Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Festival was under way and underscored the importance of keeping the downtown’s upper streets open for emergency vehicles.

About 20 firefighters and firetrucks from Andover, Dixfield, Mexico and Peru responded with mutual aid, along with Med-Care Ambulance, to 1138 Route 2, Coulombe said.

When the first firefighters arrived, the fire was threatening Martin’s house and Bob Rouleau’s house at 1142 Route 2, Coulombe said. It had also entered the forest.

“The wind was pushing it along pretty good,” he said.

“Engine 8 pulled up into 1138’s driveway and knocked down the fire there and Tanker 5 pulled into the driveway of 1142 and knocked the fire down behind that house,” he said.

Coulombe said he immediately asked for help from the other fire departments, “because it’s so dry out and the wind was blowing.”

By 1:15 p.m., firefighters had contained the fire and returned to their stations by 2:30 p.m.

While Coulombe and Bernard were filling out reports on the fire, another woods fire call came across the radio at 2:56 p.m. Oxford firefighters were calling out Paris to assist them with a lawnmower fire that was headed into the woods.

At 3:10 p.m., Woodstock and Greenwood firefighters were sent to a woods fire at 55 Mann Road, which is off Rocky Road in Woodstock.

Mexico firefighters were called out again at 7:40 p.m. for a small brush fire across the street from Dick’s Restaurant on Main Street (Route 2).

[email protected]