Could the 1947 Maine fires happen again

The softwoods that carried 1947 are still the house-side question. Maine Forest Service: 1947 was the largest forest-fire disaster in modern state history. Over 90 consecutive days of record heat and drought. Statewide: over 220,000 acres, 1,000 homes, 2,500 homeless, 16 dead. Equipment has improved. Humans still cause over 90% of wildfires in Maine. The opened 2025 LUPC/MFS poster: hardwoods are preferable to softwoods. Softwoods have more resin in their bark and less moisture in their leaves. This directory’s Abies balsamea and Picea rubens currently compute as avoid and include ME.

You are on a spruce lot in Boothbay looking at 1947 as a black-and-white postcard. Acadia says spruce and fir gave way to birch and aspen, and that those hardwoods will nurse spruce and fir back. The 2025 poster is telling you which of those you put in the first five feet.

This is not a Maine doorway.

Why it matters

“Could they again” is easy to hear as climate nostalgia. MFS’s opened 1947 page is drought plus human starts. The 2025 poster is Zone 1 embers and a hardwood-over-softwood preference. Connecticut’s low-acreage page is the humid-east version of “it still matters.” What do you plant when the forest is the fuel is black spruce in Alaska. This page is red spruce and balsam on the Maine coast.

This site’s Maine plant evidence currently holds 451 USDA-distribution records. That is occurrence, not a 1947 species list.

How it works

1947, statewide (Maine Forest Service):

• Largest forest-fire disaster in modern Maine history.
• Over 90 consecutive days of record-breaking high temperatures and drought.
• By mid-October, many small wildfires started and spread out of control.
• Over 220,000 acres, 1,000 homes, 2,500 homeless, 16 dead, over $11 million then.
• Last 75 years: equipment, communication, training, prevention improved. Humans still cause over 90% of wildfires in Maine.

1947, Mount Desert Island (NPS Acadia, updated 1 September 2020):

• 17,188 acres on the island; more than 10,000 in the park.
• Started 17 October near Dolliver’s dump / a cranberry bog. Cause unknown.
• 23 October: gale after a dry cold front; six miles in less than three hours toward Bar Harbor. 67 seasonal estates on Millionaires’ Row. 170 permanent homes and five historic hotels around downtown. Business district skirted.
• Completely out 14 November.
• After: spruce and fir gave way to birch and aspen. Deciduous trees are short-lived; they nurse shade-loving spruce and fir that may reclaim the territory.
• Statewide NPS sentence: more than 200,000 acres, 851 permanent homes, 397 seasonal cottages. That is not the same census as MFS’s 220,000 / 1,000. Quote the page you opened.

2025 ignition zones (LUPC / MFS poster):

• Zone 1, 0–5 feet: stop ember ignition and a ground fire against the wall. Gravel or other noncombustible groundcover. Mowed, irrigated grass acceptable. Hardwoods preferable to softwoods. Softwoods: more resin, less leaf moisture, more likely to ignite than live hardwoods. No wood piles, trash, gasoline. Includes sheds.
• Zone 2, 5–30 feet: hardwoods preferable. Remove the lower 1/3 of softwood branches. Reduce ladder fuels. Irrigate in drought if possible. Shoreland zoning may limit clearing.
• Zone 3, 30–100 feet: thin; retain more hardwoods than softwoods if possible; gaps between groups.

Firewise USA sites (MFS list):

• Sprucewold, Boothbay Harbor (2011): peninsula heavily forested with mature spruce; limited freshwater; steep slopes; log cabins covered with creosote.
• Cushing Island (2011): spruce blowdowns bucked so they decay on the forest floor; defensible space near structures.
• Recognition is community work plus MFS brush-chipping. It is not a plant table.

This directory:

• Maine: 451 records. 271 on-list, 44 avoid, 14 conflict, 122 candidate.
• Abies balsamea avoid, ME.
• Picea rubens avoid, ME.
• Picea glauca conflict, ME.
• Betula papyrifera on-list, ME. NPS named birch as the post-fire sun-lover.
• Populus tremuloides on-list, ME. NPS named aspen.
• Pinus strobus avoid, ME. On-list hardwood is not Zone 0.

See how to read a plant page.

The paths

What people mix up

• 1947 as a closed chapter with a finished fuel problem. MFS: humans still start 90%.
• Post-fire birch/aspen with a fireproof forest. NPS: they nurse spruce and fir back.
• Hardwood on-list with Zone 0. The poster’s Zone 1 still wants noncombustible groundcover.
• White spruce conflict with red spruce avoid. Different records.
• Alaska black spruce (forest-as-fuel) with Maine red spruce. Related resin question, different species.
• Shoreland-zoning limits with a Firewise exemption. The poster: abide by the rules that apply.
• Creosote log cabins at Sprucewold with a plant list.

How to check

1. Open The 1947 Fires. Read 220,000 acres and the 90% human-caused sentence.
2. Open Acadia’s Fire of 1947. Read the spruce/fir → birch/aspen paragraph. Note the statewide housing tally differs from MFS.
3. Open the 2025 ignition-zone poster. Read hardwoods preferable to softwoods.
4. Open Firewise USA sites in Maine. Read Sprucewold and Cushing Island.
5. Open Maine plant evidence, Abies balsamea, Picea rubens, Betula papyrifera.
6. Do not plant in Zone 0.

Limits

This page quotes opened MFS HTML, opened NPS HTML (updated 1 September 2020), and the opened 2025 LUPC/MFS PDF. The linked Wildfire Magazine January 1998 PDF, Kennebec Journal scans, Newfield map, and Moulton letter were not opened as primary text and are not quoted. IBHS ember-storm video on the Firewise index was not transcribed. 451 is a count of stored USDA-distribution rows as of this writing, not an MFS statistic. Zone 0 is not a planting list.

Related records

• Abies balsamea
• Picea rubens
• Betula papyrifera
• Populus tremuloides
• Maine plant evidence
• What do you plant when the forest is the fuel
• Fire risk is low here. Why plants still matter
• Glossary: Zone 0
• Glossary: Firewise USA