BROWNFIELD, Maine — Seven decades ago this month, the church bells of prosperous Brownfield, Maine, clanged with a frantic peal. Little did those who pulled at the ropes realize that they were tolling the death knell of their town.
The summer of 1947 was the driest anyone could remember since before the First World War. From the beginning of August, Oxford County had seen barely 2 inches of rain, and some locations reported no measurable rain for 108 consecutive days. Fear of fire had even prompted state officials to cancel the hunting season to keep people out of the woods. Wildfires had sprung up in Newfield, Shapleigh and Waterford, raging out of control all the way to the coast. One blaze invaded Kennebunk on Monday, Oct. 20, and the next day another fire that had engulfed Mount Desert Island burned its way into Bar Harbor.
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