GREENWOOD — Dozens of firefighters battled a forest fire Saturday afternoon off the Ames Road.

By 7 p.m., “I wouldn’t call it out, but it’s under control,” said Maine Forest Ranger Art Lavoie. “Firefighters are still there.”

No one was injured and no property was damaged, he said.

The Greenwood fire was one of three wildfires in Maine on Saturday. There was another in Pittston and a 5.5-acre wildfire in Gray.

The Greenwood fire consumed 8.4 acres. “It’s a pretty good size,” Lavoie said. “It was really windy today. The wind helped push the fire along.”

Lavoie is a ranger supervisor in Rangeley. “It’s a bit out of my zone. I came down to help out,” he said. Nine fire departments, including volunteer firefighters, fought the fire, including units from Oxford, Norway, Paris, West Paris, Greenwood, Bethel and Newry. Greenwood is south of Bethel.

The Maine Forest Service said conditions were the most severe, giving Saturday a “red flag warning.” When conditions are at a red flag warning, fires can start quickly, spread furiously and burn intensely.

Because the burn can be so intense, at times the only safe control action is on the flanks of the fire until the weather changes, “or the fuel supply” (dead leaves and brush) lessens.

Rainfall has been below normal this spring and the ground is dry. “All the dead leaves and needles on the ground” are what fuels fires, Lavoie said.

The cause of the Greenwood fire hadn’t yet been determined. “We’ll investigate that. Today we were more worried about putting it out. But there was evidence of a campfire.”

The odds are good, he added, that someone started a campfire and did not pour water on it to properly put it out.

“People don’t extinguish their fires; they can hold heat for days,” Lavoie said. “Water needs to be poured on it.”

When a campfire is not extinguished with water, it can smolder for hours or days, then reignite and grow into a big problem.

“With the fire danger so high, and when it’s windy, that’s when fires get away from people,” Lavoie said.

He said people should not start campfires or clean up by burning brush in their yards before checking with fire authorities.

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