GILEAD — Firefighters from several Western Maine towns Wednesday night were battling a woods fire off North Road that began earlier in the afternoon.

One passer-by on Route 2 near the scene estimated the size of it at one to two football fields.

“It’s just a whole pile of smoke, but there’s people stopped on both sides of (Route 2) and there was a helicopter that was just going in. It had a big red bucket on the bottom,” Jamie Perry of Wilton said at 6:40 p.m.

Perry said she thought the fire was heading toward the Androscoggin River and Route 2. The highway had not been shut down.

The river is between Route 2 and North Road.

“It’s kind of weird, because we were coming from Vermont and you never see anybody really pulled over on the side of the road like this, and I thought, ‘OK, there must be a moose here or something,’ and then I looked more and saw the mountain was on fire,” Perry said.

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“It’s just all white smoke and it smells like a campfire,” she said. “I was surprised that we’re now by the Circle K (in Bethel) and you can still smell it.”

Bethel, Newry and Mexico fire departments sent trucks to the scene with forest-firefighting equipment, manpower and a few all-terrain vehicles.

The biggest obstacles to battling the blaze, according to one Forest Service ranger, were accessibility and a rugged terrain. Instead of requesting tanker trucks, crews put out a call for ATVs and more manpower.

A Maine Forest Service helicopter flew to the scene to help battle the flames.

Newry fire Chief Bruce Pierce said that while en route he could see a lot of smoke in the sky and it was pretty hazy on North Road in Gilead.

By late Wednesday, the fire was said to be contained. However, crews were expected to return Thursday morning to assess and continue their operation, as needed.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com


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