76:. Being 30 miles (48 km) 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. By October 19, many communities in Maine breathed air filled with a smoky haze and the smell of burning wood.
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Juanita and
Franklin Spofford lived on the Granite Point Road across Horseshoe Cove from Fortunes Rocks. The Spoffords wet down their house with a garden hose until the pressure failed. Then they filled buckets and tubs and set them around the house. As burning debris carried by the wind fell in the
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In the late 1980s, to commemorate the Great Fires of 1947, the State of Maine developed signs for each community where the fires burned, detailing the effect the fires had on those communities. Signs still stand today in many communities, including Alfred at the Alfred Fire
Department on Kennebunk
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Even today evidence exists of the Great Fires that swept through York County. In
Waterboro, Shapleigh and Lyman, where the devastation was great, forests of small, undesirable pine trees grow en masse where great forests stood before the fires. One would notice on visits to these communities that
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conditions in 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 preventive measures such as informing the public to have their
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grass, setting it afire, they wet brooms in the buckets and beat the flames out. Bushes beside the garage caught fire. The house across the street and others on
Granite Point Road burned, but the Spoffords' did as well.
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homes within them lack historical significance; the oldest were built in the late 1940s. Most historic farms and homes built before 1947 in these communities were destroyed.
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road, Shapleigh at the Ross Corner Fire
Department on Ross Corner Road, and North Kennebunkport (Arundel) at the Central Fire Station and Town Hall on Limerick Road.
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and 200,000 acres (81,000 ha) statewide. Collectively, the fires killed a total of 16 people. This disaster is an important part of the local history of the
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cleaned. By the second week of
October, the state was in a Class 4 state of danger, meaning: "high state of inflammability." The State Forest Service reopened
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were brought in to clear the debris and standing chimneys where homes once stood. It took a decade for many to fully recover their losses.
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were devastated by fire. With the exception of
Shapleigh and Waterboro, most town centers were saved through the tireless work of
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Many people fought to save their homes. In a book published in 1979, Joyce Butler wrote about the Great Fires of 1947 in
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After a wet spring, in which the months of April, May and June were inundated with rainy weather, the climate turned to
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Reports of small fires in woods began coming into the Forest
Service on October 7. These early fires burned in
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Hardest hit was northern York County, the southernmost county in the state. Fires began in the towns of
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that destroyed a total area of 17,188 acres (6,956 ha) of wooded land on
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239:"When Maine Burned: Remembering 50 Years Ago"
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310:1947 natural disasters in the United States
305:20th-century wildfires in the United States
61:normally closed at the end of September.
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189:Wildfire Loose: The Week Maine Burned
170:Wildfire Loose: The Week Maine Burned
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217:"Staff Ride to the Bar Harbor Fire"
156:Modern evidence of the Great Fires
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285:1947 fires in the United States
40:and Mount Desert Island areas.
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237:Butler, Joyce; Parent, Tom.
128:; Wells; and the cities of
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270:Natural disasters in Maine
191:(Downeast Books, 1979)
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295:Hancock County, Maine
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118:North Kennebunkport
34:Mount Desert Island
18:Great Fires of 1947
290:York County, Maine
59:fire watch towers
20:were a series of
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246:. Retrieved
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220:. Retrieved
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182:Bibliography
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138:firefighters
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22:forest fires
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144:Restoration
80:York County
38:York County
264:Categories
248:6 December
203:References
150:bulldozers
243:Firehouse
130:Biddeford
110:Kennebunk
90:Waterboro
86:Shapleigh
44:The fires
106:Newfield
66:Portland
55:chimneys
222:6 April
122:Arundel
70:Bowdoin
50:drought
28:in the
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126:Dayton
98:Alfred
120:(now
102:Lyman
94:ocean
74:Wells
26:Maine
250:2016
224:2013
193:ISBN
134:Saco
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