Maine Fire #2
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Hi I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is The Weather Notebook.
Fifty four years ago this month, the state of Maine experienced its worst set of wildfires in modern times. More than 200,000 acres of land burned for 10 days, leaving 16 people dead and millions of dollars in damage. The blazes followed a dry summer when it did not rain for 108 days.
Lawrence Dolby was a fire inspector for the state back then, and from his home in Saco, Maine, he shared with us his memories of the Big Fire of 1947.
"I walked out of my house and said to the people as we walked around, It feels and sounds like we're walking on icicles, breaking icicles. And that's just the lawn that has not been mowed for a day or two, that's so dry it's like breaking small sticks of wood".
Dolby says that a lack of equipment was one problem during the 10-day blaze.. But even when equipment was available, he says there was sometimes no water to go with it.
"I saw your grandmothers kettle that would hold 10 quarts of water and there's a big barn over there with cattle either in it or out in the field, pair of horses in it tied in, and you look down into the barn and see the smoke rolling through the barn and they got two kettles of water. This is not funny, this is tragic".
That's Lawrence Dolby, a retired fire inspector from Saco, Maine. Thanks today go to assistant producer Doug Sanborn who grew up hearing stories about the Big Fire of '47 from his father who lived through it.. The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory and is generously supported by Subaru of America.
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