Acadia/Mt. Desert Fire Department

Date: January 27, 2012

Fire Training Partnership

On January 21, 2012, six members of the Mount Desert Fire Department and three Acadia National Park employees worked together to remove two buildings along the northwest shore of Long Pond.The National Park Service acquired the buildings as part of its land acquisition program for Acadia National Park, and they had long been slated for removal. Because of the remote location of the buildings, with no road or trail access, burning was deemed to be the best removal tool.The park partnered with Mount Desert Fire Department in setting up a training exercise.Both agencies developed goals that they wanted to achieve during the exercise.Besides the removal of the buildings, other goals were: working together under the incident command system, cold weather pump operations, and gaining an understanding of equipment and man power needs at remote sites.

Both of the buildings burned completely with very little clean up required.The area will regenerate on its own in the next year or two.Opportunities to have beneficial trainings such as this allow for area departments and agencies to learn valuable lessons and to be prepared to assist and protect the residents and visitors to Mount Desert Island.

The removal of these buildings and restoration of the sites to a natural condition will help achieve the goals of the park's management zone concept as described in the General Management Plan (1992) for Acadia National Park.All of the buildings are located in the "Natural Zone," which includes lands and waters that will be managed to conserve and protect natural resources and ecological processes and provide for their use and enjoyment by the public.