DENMARK – Two teams of state prisoners are being sent to Denmark and Bingham on Friday to help extinguish woods fires in those towns, Maine Forest Service dispatcher David Hilton said Thursday.

The Denmark fire, which started sometime early Thursday morning, has burned from three to five acres in hard-to-reach terrain atop and between Allen Mountain and Hancock Pond, said Town Manager Bert Kendall, who fielded calls Thursday from worried camp owners.

Seven or eight Oxford and Cumberland county fire departments and a Maine Forest Service helicopter fought the Denmark forest fire before mostly knocking it down sometime Thursday afternoon, he said.

“It’s contained, but not out,” Kendall said. “It’s very hard to get to and it’s pretty tough terrain. We were very lucky where it was, because it hasn’t burned down any camps. Firefighters are going to watch it at night and hope the wind doesn’t shift. It would be nice if it would start pouring right now. We need rain badly.”

That rain may not come until Friday night, but according to National Weather Service meteorologist A. J. Lester in Gray on Thursday, it could last through Sunday thanks to a “rather moist” low pressure system moving in for the weekend.

Hilton said a 20-person state prison crew from Warren is coming to help fight the Denmark fire Friday.

The Bingham fire was caused by a lightning strike in remote woods and has burned less than an acre for about four days, because no one spotted it, Hilton said by phone in Augusta.

A six-person prison crew from Charleston will do the same in Bingham on Friday, he said.

Skowhegan firefighters fought multiple brush fires along Route 2 on Thursday afternoon between Skowhegan and Canaan, according to Skowhegan fire Chief Dan Adams.

According to witnesses, Adams said sparks coming from the exhaust of a diesel-powered truck started fires in seven or eight different spots, two of which entered woods, but the others were contained to just dry brush along the road.

“Conditions are dry, so the fires were advancing fairly well along the ground,” Adams said.

On Thursday, the forest service issued high fire danger warnings for western, central and southern Maine and moderate danger for the rest of the state. The National Weather Service in Gray also issued a fire weather watch for all but northern Maine due to bone-dry conditions.

Hilton, Adams and Rumford fire Deputy Chief Ben Byam said that even though the woods have greened up, it’s deceptive because the lack of rainfall, high winds and low humidity have combined to dry leaf litter on the ground.

“I think it’s the worst spring we’ve ever had, because I mow lawns and it’s wicked dry,” Byam said. “Everything’s greened up, but the leaves on the ground are still dry, dry, dry, and they haven’t decayed. Usually, it rains too much and they decay. The trees and stuff are green, but not the leaves and stuff on the ground. It’s brutally dry. If a fire gets going, it’s going to take off.”

Hilton echoed Byam’s concern.

“I live in New Gloucester and my rain gauge showed 6/10ths of an inch in the last month. We’ve since had a little shower here and there, but then we got fairly high winds all spring and the humidity’s been low, so that tends to dry out stuff … So if we get a fire, it’s going to start moving right along,” he said.