Jan. 16—Walls of flames, fanned by high winds, roaring across drought-stricken land.
That’s the scene in Los Angeles now. It also happened in Maine.
In late October 1947, massive wildfires swept across the state, leaving a path of destruction unlike anything Mainers had seen before or since.
Thousands of untrained volunteers worked alongside firefighters for weeks to battle the fast-moving flames, often with shovels and hand-pump water canisters. By the time the fires were extinguished, they had burned more than 200,000 acres, destroyed 900 year-round and 400 seasonal homes, left 2,500 people homeless and killed 16 others. The fires burned half of Acadia National Park, nearly wiped out nine communities and permanently changed Mount Desert Island and York and Oxford counties.
Could it happen again?
There is always a risk for large-scale fires, particularly during drought periods, but advances in firefighting technology and woodlands management have reduced the likelihood that they would burn out of control like they did in 1947, according to experts. And while Maine has seen changes in the climate that could impact the risk, the conditions here are unlike those in the western United States, where fires — including the deadly ones currently burning around Los Angeles — are much more likely to spread.
A prolonged drought and high winds created the perfect scenario of the fire to spread in 1947, said Kent Nelson, a retired Maine forest ranger specialist. Compounding this was large amounts of fallen timber left in forests by a 1938 hurricane, he said.
“Unfortunately, the fire devastation of 1947 could occur again under the right conditions. With climate change contributing to weather extremes, the risk of large-scale wild fires remains,” Nelson said. “High winds and low relative humidity remain critical factors.”
State climatologist Sean Birkel from the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine said the Northeast region overall is a humid climate “and there’s less likelihood of large fires developing compared to the western part of the country where it is much drier.” While Maine’s climate is trending toward getting wetter, there have been upticks in reports of wildland fires during years with drought conditions, including 2020, he said.
“As the climate warms, we expect to see a continuing trend toward precipitation extremes,” he said. “One likely outcome is that we see more intense wet periods and more intense dry periods.”
THE YEAR MAINE BURNED
The spring of 1947 was a wet one in Maine, with continual rain in April, May and much of June. But through summer and into the fall, the state received only half of its normal rainfall, causing vegetation to become bone dry and water supplies to dwindle. By mid-October, the region was experiencing some of the driest conditions ever recorded.
There were 50 small fires burning around the state on Oct. 20. By the following day, gale-force winds were fanning fires in York, Oxford and Hancock counties, forcing families to flee their homes. Fire roared into Kennebunkport’s Goose Rocks Beach community, forcing people to flee into the water as nearly every building in the area burned to the ground.
On Mount Desert Island, fire was reported on Oct. 17 by a woman who saw smoke rising from a cranberry bog. Over the next three days, the fire burned 169 acres. But on Oct. 21, strong winds created an inferno that raged out of control and engulfed more than 2,000 acres.
Local firefighters, military personnel and National Park Service staff from across the eastern U.S. rushed to fight the blaze, but it took another week to get it under control. More than 10,000 acres in the park burned that month.
By the time rain arrived and the fires had died down, more than 200,000 acres were scorched, including roughly 130,000 acres in York County.
WHAT’S CHANGED
The devastating fires prompted major changes in how Mainers prepare for and respond to wildfires. In the aftermath of the 1947 blazes, many local fire departments raised money to buy modern trucks and equipment. Other towns organized fire departments for the first time.
Two years after the fire, Congress created the Northeastern Forest Fire Protection Compact, which allowed all of the New England states and New York to provide mutual aid and equipment to fight forest fires. That was later expanded to include Quebec, New Brunswick and three other Canadian provinces.
Amanda Pollock, a spokesperson for Acadia National Park, said staff learned a lot from the 1947 fire, the last one that burned more than 100 acres in the park. One of the most important changes that came from that fire was a partnership with the Maine Forest Service that provides access to important resources like helicopters that can use bucket drops to quickly suppress fires.
The park staff also focuses on preventative work to reduce risks. That ranges from paying close attention to the daily fire risk to managing a healthy forest that encourages new vegetative growth on the forest floor that is harder to catch fire, Pollock said.
CLIMATE CHANGE A FACTOR
Ivan Fernandez, co-chair of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the Maine Climate Council, said Maine does not have the same risk level for fires as California because it has a more humid environment. Maine also now has better management of extensive woodlands, so out-of-control fires without strong suppression systems are less likely now than in 1947, he said.
“Nevertheless, the climate is bringing us more rain, but when it’s dry, it’s drier than it used to be. When it’s hot, it’s hotter than it used to be,” he said. “The risk of ignition in a heavily forested state comes when we have periods of drought.”
Fernandez said the trends of winters with less snowpack can lead to a drier spring and summer, creating conditions that could lead to a higher risk of fires igniting when vegetation is dried out.
“Our conditions are not immune to risky fires,” he said.
In the fall, the threat of wildfires blanketed multiple New England states because of severe drought conditions. About 74% of Maine was abnormally dry or in moderate drought at the end of October. That meant more wildfires late into the typical fire season throughout the region.
Joe Mints, a regional forest ranger and division training officer with the Maine Forest Service, said the forest service is more effective at finding and suppressing fires than it was in 1947 because of advances in technology and training.
“We find fires faster and we get on them earlier. We have a much more robust set of tools to put them out quickly,” he said.
In recent years there has also been a stronger focus on educating homeowners about how to assess their properties to remove vegetation that could fuel fires and create a defensible space around their homes.
Still, there’s always a chance that fires can break out, Mints said.
“The efforts of the local fire department and forest service reduce that likelihood, but there’s still always the potential,” he said.
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