RUMFORD — The Maine Forest Service on Friday advised people in the Western Maine mountains to use extra caution in managing and extinguishing campfires and controlled burns because of a very high danger of forest fires.

The Forest Service also issued alerts for most of Oxford, Franklin and Somerset counties.

“The past two weeks of exceptionally dry weather, coupled with the present heat wave, has produced a significant amount of combustible forest fuel,” said Kent Nelson, fire prevention specialist for the Maine Forest Service. “Forest fuel is the ground-level, naturally flammable material on the forest floor, such as downed limbs, pine needles, etc.”

Nelson said rangers were mopping up a wildfire that occurred Thursday on a peninsula near Moxie Pond, which is 15 miles north of Bingham in Somerset County.

“The fire, which is still under investigation, burnt 1.75 acres and an outbuilding before it was stopped mere feet from a summer cottage,” he said. Due to the remote location of the fire, a helicopter and boats had to be used to suppress it.

“Maine was fortunate to have a lot of precipitation this past spring,” Nelson said. “This has helped to green things up this summer and has helped the fire danger from being worse.”

However, a very real fire danger now exists, Nelson said, and he urged the public to take special care in preventing forest fires.

“Ninety percent of all wildfires are caused by humans,” Nelson said, “and the other 10 percent is caused by lightning.”

Several community fire departments in western Maine, such as the Rumford Fire Department, have stopped issuing burn permits to the public with the heightened fire-danger alert.

“The Maine Forest Service can advise but not compel fire departments to not issue burn permits at class three or four,” said Nelson.

“There are important steps we can all take to reduce forest fires,” Nelson said, “such as thoroughly extinguishing a campfire.”

“It is important to double-check that your campfire is completely out,” Nelson said, “to make sure it doesn’t get into the duff zone — which is directly beneath the surface — and can spread to other areas.”

In addition, Nelson advised that people be proactive when in the wilderness and look for telltale signs of fire dangers, such as other people’s poorly extinguished campfires and suspicious smoke rising from forest areas.

“You can decrease the chances of having your house damaged or destroyed by a forest fire,” he said,”by creating a 30-foot defensible space between your house and the forest.”

“The defensible space is established by picking up dead wood in the zone and clearing the area of needless brush,” Nelson said.

 The biggest recorded wildfire in Maine history was in 1947, when 200,000 acres burned, according to Nelson.

“We really do need a good soaking rain to bring our fire danger to a safer Class One,” Nelson said.

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