BETHEL — Two Maine Forest Service rangers were credited Saturday with saving a Bethel garage off Route 26 from a dangerous wildfire despite facing intense heat.

Neither Ranger Brad Bucknell nor Ranger Jay Bernard was injured, said Lt. Jeffrey Currier, Southern District ranger for the forest service.

Shortly after 3 p.m., Bucknell had cleared an emergency management communications training exercise in neighboring Greenwood.

He was driving down Route 26 in Bethel when he saw a small column of black smoke rising from a wooded area, Currier said.

Believing he might have found someone burning illegally, Bucknell went to investigate, Currier said.

He radioed the Maine Forest Service dispatch in Augusta.

“I thought that I had an illegal burn,” Bucknell said when he arrived at the home of Clayton and Lola Crockett of 208 Walkers Mills Road, also called Route 26.

Neither was home at the time, but he didn’t learn that until later.

“I got out of the truck, walked to the rear of the building and found a fire climbing up several hemlock trees,” Bucknell said.

“I did not see anyone around and the fire was getting dangerously close to the building.”

He quickly radioed the Oxford County Regional Communications Center in Paris, asking them to send the Bethel Fire Department to the scene.

Bucknell told Paris dispatchers that he was alone and was going to try to keep the fire from burning the garage, Currier said.

Meanwhile, Ranger Jay Bernard, who was leaving the same exercise that Bucknell left earlier and was moments away, overheard the radio traffic and responded.

“I heard Bucknell saying he thought he could knock it down, so I wanted to make sure he had enough help,” Bernard said.

On arrival, Bernard worked with Bucknell to try to contain the fire.

Using hand tools called “Pulaskis,” the rangers cleared vegetation between the fire and the garage.

“They were facing intense heat from several trees that were torching, burning from the bottom up through the crowns,” Currier said.

As they were finishing the control line, Bethel firefighters arrived.

“It was a fortunate combination of good timing and having the right gear on board to deal with the fire,” Bernard said.

Once the firefighters could use water from the firetrucks to finish controlling the blaze, the rangers began to investigate the fire’s origin and cause, Currier said.

“It is apparent that the fire was caused by wood-stove ashes, which had been dumped on the ground earlier in the day,” he said.

The Crocketts weren’t home at the time of the fire, but their daughter-in-law, who heard about the commotion, arrived to see if their home was OK, Currier said.

She said she contacted the elderly homeowners, telling them what happened and that their home was OK. She thanked the rangers and firefighters for their efforts.

Currier said he didn’t believe the Crocketts would be charged when rangers meet with the couple Sunday.

“I predict a warning for improper disposal of lighted material, Class E misdemeanor,” he said.

As for Bucknell and Bernard’s efforts, Currier said he was proud of their “cool heads and decisive action.”

“It’s what we do,” he said.

Currier said the Bethel fire was one of more than 150 that have occurred in Maine this year. The Fire Service previously reported, erroneously, that 50 wildfires had occurred in the state.

It follows on the heels of another human-caused fire that burned about 5 acres on Tumbledown Dick Mountain in Gilead on Wednesday. The exact cause and origin of that fire remained under investigation.

Currier said recent weather patterns have been conducive to wildfires, keeping pilots and municipal firefighters busy the past few weeks.

“We urge people to exercise caution when conducting outdoor burning, and that they put stove ashes in a receptacle, which will prevent them from igniting dry forest fuels,” he said.

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