Small brush fire on Spruce St. Wednesday likely caused by abandoned campfire

LACONIA — Firefighters stopped a Wednesday morning blaze in the south end of the city. It was likely born of a campfire.

“That is true,” Laconia Fire Chief Tim Joubert said when asked if there was a fire on Spruce Street on Aug. 13. 

Around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, firefighters at the central station on Main Street thought the air looked hazy, and smelled smoke. They soon received calls from civilians reporting the same observations. 

By 6:50 a.m., Joubert was in his fire department SUV, driving around the city, at one point parked along the Church Street bridge and looking toward the south end. He wound his way back to Spruce — a dead-end way which turns into a dirt road blocked off by a chain — where he noticed a column of smoke, and then flames. 

When making his way back into the woods, Joubert discovered a roughly 200-by-150-foot area burning up on a hill. He called for additional resources. Firefighters from Meredith, Tilton-Northfield and Center Harbor departments covered Laconia. They also requested the assistance of a forestry firetruck from Gilford. 

All in, there were about 25 firefighters operating at the scene. 

“Just really a labor-intensive fire,” he said, noting they had to cut burning trees. 

Joubert said it looks like the fire was initiated by a campfire back in the woods off Spruce Street. No other properties or structures were threatened by the fire, which they had cleared up by about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. 

Throughout Wednesday, firefighters were returning to Spruce to ensure secondary fires didn’t crack off.