PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 16, 2025
In late October 1947, massive wildfires swept across the state. By the time the fires were extinguished, they had burned more than 200,000 acres, destroyed 900 year-round and 400 seasonal homes, left 2,500 people homeless and killed 16 others. The fires burned half of Acadia National Park, nearly wiped out nine communities and permanently changed Mount Desert Island and York and Oxford counties. Advances in firefighting technology and woodlands management have reduced the likelihood that they would burn out of control like they did in 1947. “Unfortunately, the fire devastation of 1947 could occur again under the right conditions. With climate change contributing to weather extremes, the risk of large-scale wild fires remains,” said Kent Nelson, a retired Maine forest ranger specialist.