Firefighters are hoping the overnight rains doused a forest fire on Mount Mansfield once and for all.
The fire started from an improperly extinguished camp fire near the Long Trail’s Taylor Lodge, on the Stowe side of the mountain. The embers ignited dry moss and underbrush in a steep ravine below the trail.
Firefighters from nearly a dozen departments fought the forest fire throughout Monday and Tuesday. They had to hike about an hour to reach the scene.
Elmore Volunteer Firefighter Joe Slaimen said they initially had to fill special water backpacks up at a spring, and then hike the water in to the fire.
"Different fire departments carried different stuff," Slaimen explained. "Some of them carried rakes and shovels and axes and Indian packs which we put the fire out with. It’s a water pack that goes on your back."
Slaimen said firefighters dug a trench to contain the fire in the ravine. However the fire continued to smolder underground, beneath a thick carpet of moss.