Around Town, in cooperation with The Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine, is pleased to present this on-line presentation of "The Fire of 1947," a pictorial exhibit based upon the book Wildfire Loose: The Week Maine Burned, by Maine author and historian Joyce Butler. This fascinating exhibit depicts the tragic forest fires that burned throughout the State of Maine in October of 1947.

Wildfire Loose has recently been chosen by Portland's Baxter Society for inclusion in a list of"100 distinguished books that reveal the history of the State of Maine and the life of its people." The list, which has just been publishedby the University of Maine Press as The Mirror of Maine, was selected from 400 years of Maine books.

The exhibit originally ran at The Brick Store Museum for the 40th anniversary of the fire, in 1987. It ran again in an abbreviated form in 1997 for the fire's 50th anniversary. It is this abbreviated form on which this on-line presentation is based. We'd like to thank both Joyce Butler and The Brick Store Museum for their cooperation and permission to share this uniquely fascinating story with the people of Maine via the Internet. It is our shared history.

Recommended Minimum System Requirements

This presentation is done in Flash Animation, and requires that you have the Flash Plug-in. If you do not have it, it is available for free at:

Because of the large file sizes and animations, we recommended that you have a broadband connection like Road Runner to view it. And, for optimal viewing, we suggest that your screen resolution be set at a minimum of 800 X 600 pixels, and that your computer's processor speed be a minimum of 350Mhz. You can view the presentation at other settings, but you may experience difficulties.

Thank you, and we hope you enjoy Around Town's presentation of...

(Click here to view the presentation)