Day-old ashes caused a brush fire that burned nearly half an acre of leaves and undergrowth at 115 Salt Marsh Cove Road in Edgecomb on Nov. 30.
Alan Palm, of Mattapoisett, Mass., is house-sitting at the home while the owners, Helen Weld and Robert Strachen are in Australia, Palm said.
Palm said he dumped the day-old ashes close to the shoreline of the Damariscotta River, and saw smoke outside the home about an hour later, between 11:30 a.m. and noon.
When he went outside and saw the area behind the garage on fire, Palm said he first called 9-1-1 and then called neighbor Barry Hathorne, who sometimes caretakes for Weld and Strachen.
Hathorne said he brought over a rake and an extra garden hose, and when he arrived the fire was just burning along the edges.
Fire departments from Edgecomb and Newcastle responded to the call, and extinguished what was left of the flames and continued to hose down the smoldering area. A set of steps leading down to a dock on the property was the only man-made thing damaged by the flames.
“If you’re going to dump ashes outside, wet them down,” said Edgecomb Fire Chief Roy Potter. The wind can keep embers in the ashes burning for a long time, and “If the wind picks up, this is what can happen,” he said.
It was lucky that the winds weren’t blowing toward the house, Potter said.
Palm said he has had wood stoves his whole life, but it never sunk in how long the ashes held heat. The fire taught him “a lifelong lesson,” he said.