Volunteers cleared debris in the aftermath of five ice shack fires.
By Mark LaFlamme
Staff Writer

GREENE – Piece by charred piece, a crew on Sunday cleaned up debris left behind on Sabattus Pond following a vandalism spree that left five ice shacks burned.

Blackened timbers were loaded onto trucks. Dented gas tanks, singed beer containers and various garbage was hauled through sooty slush.

It took a crew of nearly two dozen people most of the day Sunday to clear debris from the ice and snow at Barnard Cove. They made good progress but there is much work to be done.

“We’re cleaning up the invasive contamination,” said Charles Peillet, of the Sabattus Pond Watershed Partnership. “It’s coming along very well, but it’s going to take a long time.”

Meanwhile, police and Maine game wardens are investigating the vandalism spree during which five shacks were hauled to a single spot and set on fire.

The burned shacks belonged to anglers who return to Sabattus Pond each winter to fish for northern pike and other fish, officials said.

One of the demolished shacks belonged to a 10-year-old boy who had collected returnable bottles for two years to pay for lumber. The boy and his father had finally completed construction at the start of 2004.

When the shacks were set on fire in early February, that building perished along with lanterns, binoculars a fishing scoop and a camera.

“Perhaps beyond this loss and greater importance is the heart-broken plight of a young boy,” officials at the SPWP wrote in a press release.

Leon Rioux, president of the partnership, said pollution could seep into the pond if all the debris is not efficiently cleared away.

Investigators were told the blaze was set late one evening in early February and burned into the wee hours of morning. Because the cove is somewhat secluded by trees, the flames were not visible from main roads.

Several people who live across from the pond in Wales later reported they had seen the fire. Some witnesses estimated there were more than two dozen people gathered around the blazing ice shacks.

“People on the opposite shore saw what they thought were bonfires,” Peillet said “There was a huge bonfire and a party until three in the morning.”

The investigation involves Sabattus police, the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office and the Maine Warden Service. The partnership is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the persons responsible for the vandalism and fires.

Anyone with questions or information is asked to phone the partnership at 375-8459 or Sabattus police at 375-6952.