UPDATE: Smoldering Mt. Abram fire nearly extinguished

A forest fire has engulfed eight to 10 acres near the second peak of Mt. Abraham in Franklin County and forest rangers expect the fire will only get bigger before they can get it under control in the coming days.

“It’s very remote,” said Maine Forest Ranger Mark Rousseau. “It’s very rugged. It’s very steep. And it’s very thick, nasty spruce that it’s burning in. It’s not a good place for a fire.”

The land on fire is owned by the state. No buildings or other property are at risk.

The fire, which started from a lightning strike, has been burning for days. It was much smaller until Saturday.

Rousseau went up Wednesday afternoon to try to locate the fire, but rain had knocked it down enough that he couldn’t find it. On Thursday, he said, the fire had been found and rangers began forming a plan to fight it. On Friday, a helicopter started dropping water on the flames.

On Saturday, the forest rangers assembled a crew of 10 firefighters and sent them up the mountain in a helicopter, but the pilot wasn’t comfortable landing and the crew had to be brought back.

“There’s no level spot to land on, so the helicopter would basically have to hover with one skid on the ground or two skids on the ground,” Rousseau said. “He’d still be under full power while we unloaded. Given the wind conditions up there, he wasn’t comfortable doing it, so we brought everybody back. Shortly after that, the fire blew up.”

By Saturday afternoon, a helicopter pilot estimated eight to 10 acres were burning.

Two helicopters dropped water on the flames Saturday afternoon and by 3 p.m. it was 10 percent contained. But Rousseau expected that wouldn’t last.

“It’s going to get bigger. It’s actively burning now,” he said.

Firefighters may try to hike up to the fire and at least one helicopter will dump more water on the flames Sunday, but Rousseau said the fire likely won’t be extinguished any time soon.

“It’s going to be burning for several days just because of the conditions up there,” he said. “Until we get a really good, good rain, this fire’s going to be burning for a while.”

[email protected]