Fire crews spent about five hours Friday dousing a woods fire in Lebanon that was reported by the pilot of a small plane passing overhead.

Dan Mehan, chief of the Lebanon Fire Department, said the fire near Prospect Hill Road was reported about 3:50 p.m. The pilot radioed in a call to the fire department in Milton, New Hampshire, and firefighters there called Lebanon fire officials.

Mehan said fighting the fire was complicated because trucks couldn’t reach the heavily wooded area and had to lay hoses by hand to get water into the area to douse the flames. He said crews from seven other towns joined Lebanon firefighters at the scene.

About 3.8 acres burned, Mehan said. No one was injured and no structures were damaged, he said.

Mehan and other firefighters plan to return to the scene Saturday to pour more water into the area and make sure there were no flare-ups overnight, he said.

The cause of the fire is unknown, Mehan said, and is being investigated by Maine Forest Rangers.

Copy the Story Link