The Fires
After a wet spring, in which the months of April, May and June were inundated with rainy weather, the climate turned to drought condition in mid July 1947. By the end of September, the ground was extremely dry. State and local officials, recognizing the dangers of the dry conditions, began implementing preventative measures such as informing the public to have their chimneys cleaned. By the second week of October, the state was in a Class 4 state of danger, meaning: "high state of inflammability." Fire watch towers, normally closed at the end of September, were reopened by the State Forest Service. By October 19, many communities in Maine breathed air filled with a smokey haze and the smell of burning wood.
Reports of small fires in woods began coming in to the Forest Service on October 7. These early fires burned in Portland, Bowdoin and Wells. Being 30 miles apart from each other, these three fires illustrated the danger. After this, reports of fires poured in, and by October 16, 20 separate fires were burning in the state.
Read more about this topic: Great Fires Of 1947
Famous quotes containing the word fires:
“It is an evil world. The fires of hatred and violence burn fiercely. Evil is powerful, the devil covers a darkened earth with his black wings. And soon the end of the world is expected. But mankind does not repent, the church struggles, and the preachers and poets warn and lament in vain.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“Vanquished, led in irons, consumed by regrets, burnt by more fires than I ever lit.”
—Jean Racine (1639–1699)