The Wooden Nutmeg

Groton continues to burn! Have to wonder if they have an ATV riding fire bug or something…

(Collected from internet, thanks Beaker.)

By Robert Mills, rmills@lowellsun.com
Updated: 08/30/2010 08:11:41 PM EDT

GROTON — Firefighters from 18 communities converged on Groton and Dunstable Monday evening to battle a brush fire that burned an estimated 10 to 15 acres between Chicopee Row and Martins Pond Road.

Dunstable Fire Chief Charlie Rich, coordinating efforts to battle the blaze from a command point set up on Chicopee Road, said firefighters learned of the blaze at about 3:30 p.m., but initially had a hard time locating it.

Rich said the fire was about a half-mile from the nearest street.

Firefighters accessed it from Chicopee Row and from Floyd Hill Road, a dead-end off Martins Pond Road.

As darkness fell, crews were working to create a perimeter around the fire. Rich said firefighters would be back to continue fighting it first thing in the morning.

A mobile command center and special operations vehicle from the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services joined crews at the scene.

We have a bona fide summer fire season this year.

It’s been setup by a dry spell that has had the last significant rainfall in large parts of Southern New England be on June 23rd. Around the 4th of July was spectacular warm but dry weather; then following for Monday it turned extremely hot and humid with temps breaking 100º Monday and Tuesday.

Yesterday, July 10th, some areas received heavy rain. My home, however, barely broke the 1/4″ mark:

Major fires struck in Groton, MA (two separate incidents) and Holden, MA. The Holden fire covered approximately 50 acres and was attended to from Monday (5 July) through Friday. The first Groton fire of around 12 acres was active from Monday through Wednesday, then a fire in a separate section of town was fought on Thursday and Friday. After checking the perimeter and determining the active fire on Saturday was burning with no danger of exposing improved property, and with rain imminent within a few hours, it was allowed to burn without firefighting efforts.

Fires this time of year tend not to spread fast (the Connecticut fire danger hasn’t popped above “Moderate” during this spell yet), but go deep following the roots. Run hoses out into the woods, and leave them in place for a few days even for small one or two acre fires so you can return and wet down the area each day. Grub around with tools like Pulaskis and shovels.

Southwestern Connecticut was hit hardest in this state, with some of the fires reported on the ctfire-ems.com forums being:

4 July: Middletown (South District). Initially under control 1537. 1730 it was running again and a large m/a request made. Durham Tanker, Haddam Tanker and Brush Unit’s, Westfield, Portland, Middletown, DEP to scene. Middlefield, Middletown with cover assignments to South District.

5 July: Bethany, m/a Hamden, Woodbridge, Oxford, Prospect, Beacon Falls, Seymour for coverage. Fire located 1-1/2 miles off the road; ATVs could bring FFs about half-way in then rest on foot. Hose laid to fire.

7 July: Mulch pile fire on state property, Farmington. East Farms (2 Engines), Farmington (2 Engines), Oakland Gardens (Engine), Tunxis Hose (Engine), Plainville (Coverage), State DOT for front end loader.

7 July: New Milford, under 1 acre burning along power lines. Waterwitch, Gaylordsville, Northville, Brookfield (last three for tanker & manpower), New Milford Ambulance, Roxbury Rehab Unit

11 July: Voluntown, mulch pile. Voluntown, Griswold (2 ETs), Jewett City (Engine, Ladder), plus tankers from Preston City, Lisbon, Baltic, Moosup

The first Groton fire was accessible only to ATVs, and my sources report a 20′ x 18″ trench was hand dug around the perimeter. The second fire would see the hiring and deployment of three bulldozers on Friday. Bulldozers are very, very rarely used in New England. Both Connecticut and Massachusetts own one, but the single time I know of in the last ten years that each has been used they were used primarily to build an access road to a fire deep in the woods; in Groton the dozers were used to make fire line.

Pictures from the Groton Fires sent to me:
From the 8-9 July Fire:

From the July 5-7th incident…Brookline for a UTV! (With the fire also burning in Holden taking resources from Central Mass, a task force from Metro Boston was pulled in, along with resources from District 14 (Framingham region) and Merrimack Valley)

WBZ has a real nice video on the Holden fire here. (In my archives as Holden_July_2010.mpg in case that link disappears). Holden’s press release tallied up 29 communities that had come to it’s assistance.

Mashpee, MA also had a significant fire covering 5 acres. Cape News Net has a great article here (archived copy), from which these photos were taken. Some great, great examples of Brush breakers in action:

Interesting fire burning just northeast of Roscommon, MI (yes, as in the Roscommon Equipment Center that does a lot of forest fire R&D!)

It’s burning in a white pine, red pine, and jack pine area of Huron National Forest and adjacent areas. Wildland Fire Today has some good posts here, here, here, here, and here.

That may not be quite typical of southern New England in how large of areas are pine dominated, although it looks a lot more like southern Maine. But it’s burning in moderate winds and low humidity (14%) that is very common in New England, as well as flat terrain. These are conditions much more like New England then you see in fires out west.

Note the spotting that looks perhaps a mile ahead of the main fire line.

This is a good presentation on spotting, archived here.

“Close In” spotting is stuff that might go a few feet — say cross a 4′ to 6′ control line. If it’s only an occasional spot easily policed by a firefighter with a handtool or indian can, not a problem. If it’s prolific, you need a change in strategy and tactics.

Prolific is one of the big warning signs. Think the ember storms you see in some videos engulfing houses, since they can light an overwhelming number of fires.

Short range: Beyond “close in”; say tens of feet up to 600′

Medium range: 600′ to a mile.

Long range: > 1 mile

This picture shows spotting across a good 40′ of gravel and pavement…clearly this fire was going to require big burnouts from control lines well in advance of the fire to attack it at this time of day. I believe that’s Jack Pine. Jack Pine can be “scrubby” in poor soil, but it can also grow tall and straight. It is closely related too (and can hybridize with) Lodgepole Pine.

It sounds like most progress was made after night fall when they could make good progress on building fire lines as the fire left the crown and came to ground. Makes you think of the need for fairly long range planning, trying to use air resources and initial attack to protect structures and control spot fires during the day while pre-positioning resources like dozers and burn out crews to launch an all out assault once the conditions turn more favorable in the cooler, moister, and usually calmer evening.

The northeast wind on Tuesday, 5/18 that drove it turned to a northwest wind on Wednesday, 5/19. I’d imagine the focus of efforts was to make sure that southern / eastern flank was well secured, as well as being concerned if there were any unknown spot fires that could be driven by the new winds.

The forest types of Huron National Forest:

As a followup, I was the area and found the 1980 Mack Lake Fire which is documented here. It started 8 miles almost due east of this fire.

Lots of good stuff in that report. The Mack Lake fire ranks in the top for forest fire spread and BTU release rate recorded in North America. It averaged 2mph, hit 7mph peak. 27,000 BTUs/foot/second were estimated, with a theoretical maximum (for all forests) being 30,000.

It was a prescribed burn that got out of control, resulting in a LODD (Dozer Operator), 44 structures, and 20,000 acres lost in the first six hours, then it was essentially out except for mop-up.

Perhaps most interesting: This area of Michigan, per tree ring research, experiences a 10,000 acre fire an average of every 28 years.

They seem to follow a basic pattern — the weather isn’t remarkably bad (moderately warm day, moderately low humidity, moderate winds) but once they get going they run like a bat out of hell until it’s either early evening or they run out of jack pine and into hardwoods. Then the fire goes to ground and is easily contained overnight.

The last major fire before this one was Mack Lake, so it this was pretty much right on schedule.

May, 1930 Fire Outbreak in the Northeast

The articles that follow are from the New London Day documenting a break out of wildfires in Connecticut and Rhode Island (as well as the rest of the northeast).

There were warning signs at the very end of April, with a large fire in Colchester, East Hampton, and Marlborough consuming 3,000 acres. Even by the standards of the day that was a fairly large fire:

A few days later Waterford had a woods fire.

This one only covered 100 acres, but something ominous was occurring:

Foreman Thomas B. Woodworth of the Quaker Hill fire department [said] some of the “new” fires broke out 1,000′ ahead of the firemen. He said that it was possible the blazes may have been started from blazing bits of dried chestnut wood.

Ok, so we’re also in the middle of the Chestnut Blight that put a very large load of dead fuels in the forests. But that aside, since the trees were dead the year before and the year after and we didn’t have these intense fires every year…they were seeing “spotting” 1,000′ ahead of the fire. In Connecticut. (This is the first documentation I’ve seen that gives a distance with what we can expect for spotting in our area in an extreme fire year).

Then all hell broke loose.

From The New London Day on May 5, 1930:

Six homes, thirty other buildings, and 3,000 acres in Westerly and Charlestown, RI that burned essentially to the sea:

250 homes in Nashua, NH are destroyed by a brush fire that turned into an urban conflagaration:

A fire in Glastonbury, later put at around 2,500 acres, would burn five miles in length from it’s origin, and at one point reach four miles wide. Being fought by 1,000 men. “Small” fires burning 60 to 150 acres destroyed buildings in Newtown & Windsor. Another 1,000 acres in Bristol. And a 2,500 more acres in New Britain / Southington / Plainville. So a 1,000 men…that’s what, a request for 40 strike teams today? And oh by the way, we have two more fires of this size within 20 miles of here, too…oh I’d love to be a fly on the wall when that request arrives at the DEMHS.

Meanwhile in Massachusetts, 1,500 acres was burning by Marlborough and 2,000 acres in Russel, two of the “20 bad and 75 minor” fires that day:

Niantic was busy trying to protect their cottages from a brush fire:

I only got the last half of this article on New London County…multiple fires in Waterford with hundreds fighting them, Gungywamp in Groton, 2,500 acres in Preston, Ledyard, and North Stonington:

On the sixth comes an article that would have folks throw a fit today:

Finally, at the risk of pulling a Ron Popeil and going, “But wait, there’s more!”

Connecticut’s first state forester, Austin Hawes, would later place the total acreage in Connecticut that burned in this first week of May, 1930 at around 25,000 acres. And they were actually kind of pleased by that — the last bad year of 1922 had seen 80,000 acres burn.

Washington County, RI would see some 30,000 acres burn. An article up above already mentioned the 3,000 acre fire in Westerly. North of Westerly there were two more fires that burned along the Connecticut and Rhode Island borders, in Rhode Island alone one consumed 10,000 acres and the other 12,000.

The worse of these ignited around Glasgo, CT (Griswold by the Voluntown town line) and burned all the way to Nooseneck Hill Road — today’s R.I. Route 3, or spitting distance from where I-95 crosses the state today. The proximity of the two big fires, along with the spotting that was occurring, it’s quite likely they were a single fire and/or merged along the way.

This same fire is described several times in various histories of the Yawgood Scout Reservation, such as this one:

The plateau was the place where Chief Williams and “Gus” Anthony had a dangerous encounter with the great forest fire, as described in the second edition of The Story of the Yawgoog Trails:

Chief Williams and Gus Anthony stood on this plateau on Sunday afternoon, May 3, 1930 amidst the blinding smoke and falling embers and heard the roar of the great forest fire that came sweeping down from the Beach Pond area six miles [10 kilometers] away. “The fire roared like an express train as the giant white pines exploded into flames like torches.” Chief and Gus ran for their lives back down the trail toward Rathom Lodge (Williams and Tracy).

(There may some exaggeration going on — Beach Pond is 3 miles due north of Yawgoog, maybe 4 to the far northwest corner of the pond. Or the origin was considerably behind Beach Pond, either north or west of it and Beach Pond was used simply as a convenient land mark)

From the August, 14 2005 Providence Journal:

Byline: John Kostrzewa

Aug. 14–HOPKINTON — AFTER 75 YEARS, THE GREAT FIRE’S LESSONS LIVE ON: The Great Fire of 1930 burned a terrible chapter into the history of Camp Yawgoog.

It was a tragedy and a natural disaster.

The fire destroyed all but 50 acres of the Boy Scout camp set deep in the woods of South County. The devastation drove the birds and ground animals from the blackened and desolate landscape.

The sounds of life disappeared.

While the story of the Great Fire is a dark memory from Scouting’s past, it also is a story about hope, turning disaster into triumph and rallying for a common cause.

Mostly, it’s about Scout spirit that today still burns brightly at Yawgoog.

Here’s what happened 75 years ago this summer.

The winter and spring of 1930 were among the driest on record. The lack of snowfall and rain reduced streams to trickles. The water level in Yawgoog Pond dropped several feet.

Back then, Scouting in Rhode Island was still in its infancy. Most people had never heard of Yawgoog.

But two early Scout leaders, J. Harold “Chief” Williams and H. Cushman “Gus” Anthony, envisioned the wooded area as a future summer camp for boys and began to develop the property the new organization acquired.

They cleared some land for tents and erected a mess hall and headquarters.

During the first weekend in May 1930, Williams and Anthony were leading a training session for Scout leaders at Yawgoog when the fire warden came into camp. He warned that a fire had broken out well to the west, in Connecticut, and was spreading. He told them to be on the lookout.

Williams and Anthony smelled the smoke the next morning, as soon as they poked their heads out of their tents. They sent a team of campers and local volunteers with buckets, brooms and rakes to set up firebreaks at the edge of camp.

They walked west through the campground until they saw three huge columns of smoke on the horizon.

The fire, whipped by strong winds, approached with a terrifying roar. The thick smoke overtook them. The heat seared the buttons on their shirts.

They were forced to retreat and decided the only parts of camp they might save were the main buildings.

Anthony climbed to the roof of the lodge at the camp called Three Point and sprayed the roof and walls with water from a garden hose. Other adult leaders pushed their cars into the pond to escape the embers.

The fire swept along Yawgoog Pond and through the campground. Flames surrounded them, but Williams, Anthony and the others saved the lodge.

The next morning, the fire broke out on the far side of Yawgoog Pond, across from the camp. The fire crept along the shore and then leaped to Phillips Island. The Scout leaders watched the giant pines and white birches on the island ignite like torches.

Still, it was not over. The blaze continued the third day along Wincheck Pond at the opposite end of the camp.

When the fire finally died out, Williams and Anthony hiked through what was left of Yawgoog. Tent platforms, several cabins, even the docks had been destroyed. Charred tree trunks and rubble, still-smoldering, were visible for acres.

It was Anthony who first noticed the silence that had settled over the camp. The wildlife had fled, seeking sanctuary from the fire.

Standing in the black ashes, a foot deep in places, Williams and Anthony looked out at what was left of their vision.

“It was heartbreaking,” Williams said.

But he also saw the opportunity. He saw the chance to pull together a fledgling organization of troops scattered throughout the state to work on a common goal.

The fire had been front-page news in the daily papers. With Rhode Islanders focused on the damage, Williams put out the call and began to build a network of Scouting supporters in business, industry, government and the media. They all agreed to pitch in.

“We began at once to think of reforestation,” Williams said.

Two weeks after the fire, on an early Sunday morning, 500 Scouts and leaders from 79 troops from across Rhode Island arrived at the gates to Yawgoog. Each troop was assigned a section of camp and given an initial batch of 50 seedlings purchased from a nursery in Maine.

In a single, long day, the Scouts and volunteers planted 25,000, five-year-old white pine seedlings over 250 acres.

When the Scouts finished, a light rain blessed their work.

“Mother Nature has begun to heal the blackened wounds,” Williams said.

Fourteen months later, in July 1931, judges, politicians, business executives, editors, benefactors, Scouts and adult volunteers gathered at Camp Yawgoog.

They were there to dedicate the Bucklin Memorial, the huge, stone and wood-beamed building that serves as camp headquarters. But the talk was about the trees. The softwood pines planted by the Scouts grew among the hardwoods that had sprung back to life.

Federal forestry agents said it was the single largest reforestation effort in the history of Rhode Island — a model for others to follow.

And walking through camp, they all heard the sounds of life again.

Since the Great Fire, Yawgoog has become a familiar name to Rhode Islanders and one of the premier camps in the country.

Scouting has grown, too. But there also have been more tragedies, especially this summer.

During the national jamboree last month in Virginia that attracted 40,000 Scouts, four leaders were electrocuted setting up camp. Later, 300 Scouts there suffered heat exhaustion. In a separate incident elsewhere, a Scout from Utah was struck by lightning.

And then, Yawgoog itself was closed for 12 days after a contagious stomach virus sickened more than 100 Scouts.

Last Sunday, after a fresh scrubbing, Yawgoog reopened. About 800 Scouts spent a great week earning merit badges, making friends, learning to live as a community and having fun.

On the same trail hiked by William and Anthony to inspect the devastation from the Great Fire, the Scouts may have seen the marker for the reforestation, or heard the story told around the campfire.

It’s a pretty good lesson for Scouts and for that matter, for all of us.

John Kostrzewa, business editor, spent last week as a volunteer at Camp Yawgoog.

To see more of the The Providence Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.projo.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, The Providence Journal, R.I.

My company went mutual aid for a structure fire “through the roof” reported by a UPS driver on a long dead end road near the Brooklyn / Hampton town line. House was on the ground on arrival, so the woods fire was more interesting. You can find a full write up here.

West winds at 10mph, gusts to 20mph. Much better then the NW@20, Gusts to 40mph of the day before!

The fire grew to 3 to 5 acres in size (I didn’t GPS the perimeter), mainly because of initial concentration on the structure before engines and firefighters were put onto the woods fire. It was burning in primarily hardwood leaf litter, with a few small groves of hemlocks. Some young hemlocks did torch, and when the wind gusted even the leaf litter could produce 2′ flames.

What I like in the photo above is it shows a small spot fire. In these conditions if you wanted to successful with an indirect attack you probably needed a 3′ wide fire line to stop wind driven leaves from “rolling” across it. Leaf blowers backed up by hand tools would’ve done a heck of a job.

Burned 8,000 acres in Exeter and West Greenwich Rhode Island. I drove this area today, man…so many good photos to take of woods ready to explode once again I have to plan a day for the photos I want to take! May need to wait till next spring before “green up” for maximum effect.

Another large fire was burning in the Massachusetts / Connecticut / Rhode Island border region as well.

Those who read this blog know a central event I like researching is the complex of fires lit on April 30, 1942 by Edward LaCasse which burned some 50 square miles in Eastern, Connecticut (Sterling primarily), and Rhode Island (primarily Coventry and West Greenwich).

I just found this nifty piece from the 28 April 1942 New London Day — in addition to numerous smaller brush fires in the region that were proving difficult to extinguish due to re-kindles (see this post), there were at least two very large forest fires burning in Eastern Connecticut in the days before LaCasse’s arson spree. One in Groton consumed 1,000 acres, while another in Voluntown, ignited by accident when gasoline spilled on a hot engine, consumed 2,000 acres as well as a house and several outbuildings:

As other posts in the search talk about the 50 square mile fire that was centered on Sterling, CT and Coventry, RI…let’s take a look from the New London Day as to conditions in the region south of that fire that week.

The fires in that area began on Thursday, April 30th, 1942.

One common theme in these newsclippings is re-kindles of fires.

These clippings were found through this query: http://www.google.com/archivesearch?q=brush+fire+source:%22The+Day%22 (You can further define it by date ranges).

April 28th:

May 1st, mentioning Westerly firefighters who the morning after their own 350 acre fire left to help in Coventry:

May 2nd:

May 4th. That a “state pumper” came out of Lebanon is interesting. There aren’t currently any large DEP facilities in Lebanon. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen another reference to a fairly high up (or top) State Fire Warden living in Lebanon though.

May 4th. This is a different fire from the large Westerly fire mentioned above! If I have the timeline correct, the first article refers to a 350 acre fire between White Rock Road & Boon Bridge Road on Thursday, April 30th. This is north of downtown Westerly, by the Pawcatuck River. This article is for 300 acres off Shore Road, which today is Old Route 1 east of Watch Hill (I assume this is the road referred to in the article), on Saturday, May 1st. Over one square mile in two days…plus they had sent help to the large fire to the north!

From the New London Day, 19 April 1980:

Fort Shantok is no longer a state park — it was transferred to the Mohegans in 1996, following their federal recognition in 1994, and is adjacent to today’s Mohegan Sun casino. The Mohegans have a long history of friendly relations with colonial and later state authorities; in 1645 Uncas was beseiged at Fort Shantok by a force of Narragansetts until a relief force led by Thomas Leffingwell arrived.

South End Fire Department, in Old Lyme, also no longer exists. They were shutdown by their town, who took possession of the town owned station and apparatus. The department was left with the rescue truck they held title to, which was later sold to Eastford, and as part of that deal my company (Mortlake) purchased the Hurst tool and its gas-powered pump as a backup unit.

The Springfield Republican has this nice photo essay up on the ’99 and ’01 Tekoa Mountain fires.

Added to the ’93 and ’10 fires, this mountain sure burns often!

Here’s the photos, from 1999 unless otherwise noted:



Connecticut Army National Guard flying a bambi bucket. I knew New York & Massachusetts Guard units would fly buckets, I hadn’t heard of Connecticut doing so before.











From the funeral of Deputy Chief John Murphy who died at the 1999 Fire.

From the 2001 fire.

From the 2001 fire.

As reported in this post on CTFire-Ems.com:

Plymouth 4/12/10
The DEP has been fighting a forest fire in a section of the Mattatuck State Forest all day today. It is located north of Greystone Rd. and east of Todd Hollow Rd. The fire was actually discovered late Sunday night, but because of darkness, access issues, and rough terrain, it was decided to wait until daylight before sending crews in. Access to the area was by foot only. This will most likely be the largest fire yet in CT this season. It looks to be around 100 acers so far. There was intense fire activity in the afternoon with wind gusts carrying the fire over several fire lines and some 10′-15′ flame heights.

And a later update:

DEP had a line around the fire and was out of the woods by nightfall last night, so there wasn’t a need to activate the Wildfire Crew. Though there was talk on Monday afternoon of bringing in a helicopter and fire crew if we couldn’t get it. It dosent show it on the google map, but Todd Hollow Rd runs south all the way down to the Train Tracks near Greystone Rd. So that was our line to the west, and the tracks were eastern line. A hand line was cut over the top from Greystone to Todd Hollow through heavy mountain laurel at some spots 5″-6″ in diameter. The DEP had 16 firefighters on scene Monday Using 3 saws and 4 leaf blowers and hand tools. There were about 10people on scene today checking the line (it held) and burning out a small section near Todd Hollow Rd. So far it looks to be around 140 acers. Will post some pics later

You can see the extensive, low green of the Mountain Laurel thicket described above in the aerial photo from Google Maps. I kind of like this winter time images better then summer ones for looking at wildfire locations.

Judging from the flat ground, and the aerial photo, I’d assume the first picture was taken in the flats by Todd Hollow Road. That is a decent size grove of fairly big white pines. Those are generally found in hollows — first because they’re protected against high winds, and second because of the moisture available by the streams.

The forecast for Sunday & Monday called for winds out of the north and northwest, which would’ve had them blowing down that hollow, while the fire naturally would want to burn uphill. Along with a difficult to access location, very understandable the size this grew too!

This is a different section of the forest, actually quite a bit of distance as well as a river and Route 8, from my hike back in 2008 that is in this photo essay.

From the Waterbury Republican American on 4/14:

One of the larger brush fires in Terryville Fire Chief Mark Sekorski’s memory is out after burning 137 acres in Mattatuck State Forest since Sunday.

The fire, in a remote area just feet off the “blue trail” hiking trail, “is on the top scale as far as brush fires go,” Sekorski said. About 25 Terryville firefighters and 23 state park rangers responded to the fire Sunday after a 7:58 p.m. call, but found it too dark to do anything in the steep, rough terrain. The closest homes, off Greystone Road, were in no real danger, Sekorski said. The wind was on their side, blowing away from the homes.

The same winds brought the smoky smell of dried, burning brush a few miles south, into downtown Waterbury. Several residents there called the fire department concerned, police said Monday.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

It is my understanding from non-media accounts that the first containment line being constructed through the mountain laurel along the north side of the fire was over run, with the (second hand) report that one DEP employee stated it was the first time in 20 years he has had to run for safety on a fire in Connecticut.

Russell along with Bureau of Forest Fire Control and mutual aid are battling a hundred acre fire in steep terrain:

RUSSELL – A Massachusetts Army National Guard helicopter has joined efforts Monday to put out a wind-fueled brush fire that has been burning on Tekoa Mountain for several days.

Tekoa Mountain, steep and remote, is often hit by brush fires, especially this time of year when conditions can get extremely dry. A fire on the mountain in 1995 burned 587 acres. An even larger fire there four years later blackened more than 1,200 acres.

Russell Deputy Fire Chief John E. Murphy, 64, died of a apparent heart attack while fighting that April 1999 fire.

From MassLive, archived here. The video I have saved as tekoa_2010_video1.flv.

There are some nice night time shots from Sunday evening at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snO6Xgnu3u0, which I have saved as tekoa_2010_video2.flv.

The Exploring Western Massachusetts blog has a nice post on Tekoa with some good pictures of the terrain being faced (and pitch pines!).

4/14 Update:
Fire consumed 320 acres:

By George Graham, The Republican
April 14, 2010, 10:42AM

RUSSELL – A small plume of smoke wafted up from Tekoa Mountain Wednesday morning as firefighting operations against a large-scale brush fire that burned here for about four days wound down.

Russell Fire Chief Michael Morrissey said late Wednesday morning that the fire, which burned over 320 acres, is under control and confined to a small area across the Westfield River from the Jacob’s Ladder rest area on Route 20.

A group of about 20 firefighters, down from about 75 Tuesday, were at the scene Wednesday fighting hot spots, Morrissey said.

A firefighting command center, set up at the Jacob’s Ladder rest stop been closed down.

Elsewhere, firefighters in Granville said Tuesday they believe they have extinguished a smaller fire that burned up to 45 acres on Sodom Mountain.

In Russell, town firefighters worked with crews from Westfield, Agawam, Holyoke, West Springfield, Montgomery, Easthampton, Northampton, Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation Bureau of Fire Control.

In all, a total of 75 firefighters and a helicopter apiece provided by state police and the Massachusetts Army National Guard battled the fire that cut a zigzag patterned trail of flames across Tekoa Mountain.

About 15 firefighters from Granville, Tolland and Southwick fought the Sodom Mountain fire until about 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Granville Fire Chief James Meadows could not be immediately reached for comment.

As a bonus find, the Russell Fire Department has a great wildland SOP posted on their website (actually, all the SOPs I looked at I liked — clear, concise, no BS, gave everything relevant without micro-managing or trying to address every conceivable situation):

WILDFIRE INCIDENT RESPONSE GUIDE
6.01 PURPOSE
To establish guidelines that will provide the incident
commander and personnel with a safe and effective way of
handling fires involving forest, brush and/or ground cover.
6.02 PROCEDURE
A. Upon arrival a report on conditions.
l. Determine actual location of fire (including size).
Use topographic maps or GPS for precise location.
2. Direction and characteristic of fire travel.
3. Type of fuel burning (light grass, heavy bush).
4. Exposures.
5. Action being taken by first arriving unit.
B. Request additional equipment.
C. Determine plan of action based on priorities and resources
available.
6.03 SAFETY
A. All members shall wear necessary protective clothing in
accordance with the hazard.
B. The use of a personnel accountability system will be
required and maintained by the incident commander or his/her
designee
C. Safety rules for operating vehicles “off road”.
l. Have a means of escape should your position be over
run.
2. Avoid commitment of units on narrow roads in heavy
brush areas.
3. It is not uncommon for heavy vehicles to become stuck
off road.
4. Before taking a unit “off road”, you must know
location and direction of fire travel.
D. Post a guard when advancing and manning lines in brush
areas. Some things to be especially cautious of are:
l. Spot fires below your crew and frequent spot fires.
2. Aircraft making retardant drops.
3. Heavy equipment working above your crew, i.e. falling
rocks, etc.
4. Changes in wind velocity and direction.
E. A means for escape shall be made known to all fire
personnel working in brush areas. Stay close to the burned
areas.
F. All personnel should know the location and direction of
travel of fire head(s).
G. Attempt to not allow fire personnel to become exhausted.
Provide rest periods. Frequency will be dependent upon topography and weather conditions.
H. Be alert to the possibility of downed electrical wires;
there may be energized fences as a result.
I. Do not go downhill to attack a fire.
6.04 CONTROL
A. Base all actions and strategies on current and expected
behavior of fire.
B. Structural protection and life safety take priority over
extinguishment of brush.
C. If offensive attack (direct attack) is indicated, choose
an anchor point and hit the head of the fire, if possible.
If that is not possible, establish an anchor point and
start on the flanks and work toward the head.
D. If the fire is a large, hot, fast moving one, then a direct
attack may not be possible. In such cases, an indirect
and/or parallel attack may be utilized by cutting a fire
line a distance ahead of the fire (or utilizing natural
fire breaks, such as highways) to halt the progress of the
fire.
l. This may require writing off losses (structures, etc.)
in the path of fire.
2. Indirect attack is commonly used in conjunction with
fire retardant drops and back-firing techniques.
E. Different methods of attack may be used simultaneously
according to the situation.
F. If assigned structural protection, keep hose lays flexible
enough to be able to quickly break away in the event of
being over run.
H. If additional resources are needed the Massachusetts
Bureau of Fire Control District 11 should be contacted. They have added supplies of hand tools, back pack pumps, tractors. The request for a county task force may be made through dispatch. The incident commander must provide the numbers for equipment type and personnel needed.

6.05 COMMAND
A. Fires requiring the coordination of two (2) units or more,
should have the Incident Command System put into effect.
B. Establish a Command Post
C. The Incident Commander has responsibility for the entire
operation. He also has responsibility for assigning (on
as “as needed” basis) the following positions during brush
fire operations:
l. Operations
2. Support
3. Sectors/Division.
4. Liaison positions between various agencies.
E. Radio communications should ensure the IC has the ability
To communicate with all functions and also the ability to
provide working crews with emergency information.

I never realized how extensive the pitch pine / scrub oak community is along the Connecticut and Rhode Island border, particularly in Coventry and West Greenwich along the state line. This area is probably around 10 square miles. As this was a major portion of the May, 1942 fires one can imagine the fire spread that would have occurred in such an isolated area. An old rail line runs roughly along the northern side of this pitch pine forest; as the arsonist was a railroad section foreman we’re left to wonder at this time how much that played a roll. Also interesting is why this area is still pitch pine — was it always? Why is the Connecticut side more mature? Was it better attention on the Connecticut side towards re-planting with white pines and more active fire suppression post 1942? Is it simply a difference in soils?

From a firefighting perspective, the difficulties posed by acre after acre of this:

Compared to more typical New England mixed forests:

Is fairly dramatic.

In the latter case, it is relatively easy to construct control lines even if occasional obstacles must be bypassed. A crew using a backpack leaf blower could build quite a bit of line quickly, reinforcing it with a burn out to the body of the main fire.

In the former, in the pitch pine with a thick story of underbrush (probably blueberry or huckleberry; I’ll have to re-visit the area this summer when the leaves are out to tell for sure)…building control lines away from the fire will be much, much more difficult. Backpack blowers are out, at best Council fire rakes might help. With the higher flame heights from brush compared to hardwood leaf litter a wider line is probably needed as well as making a burn out a more risky tactic to try.

Except along established control lines such as roads, it would seem the best tactic is the hot and dirty work of directly attacking the fire along the flanks, hopefully with a hoseline! Lacking that, then with indian tanks and hand tools while making slow progress compared to simple leaf litter, despite having a fire that is burning hotter, higher, and faster to deal with.

West Greenwich saw a continuous decline in population from 2,054 in 1790, to only 367 in 1920.

By 1940 the population had increased to 526. Still very small for it’s 51.3 square miles!

The border between West Greenwich and Coventry, west to the Connecticut border, is a large area of pitch pine and scrub oak. One thing I need to research more is why — is there a change in soil by Connecticut, as well as north and south, that favors more mature forests? Or is this purely a function of repeated fires keeping the pitch pine ecosystem dominant?

I have a lot of photos to parse through from this fire yesterday:

http://www.d90.us/fire/7_April_2010_467_Providence_Pike_Hampton/index.html

Fire came in as a smoke investigation in our district, it was finally located approximately a mile southeast of the calling party, a half mile off the road with no access by heavy vehicles due to recent very heavy rains that have the ground saturated in low spots.

While he is not accused currently in the large fire that claimed 40 cottages in Alton, NH last April, which was called in originally as a brush fire, an Alton Firefighter has been charged with four arsons and officials claim he has admitted to eleven dating back to 2006. From the Union Leader:

By ROGER AMSDEN
New Hampshire Union Leader Correspondent
Monday, Mar. 22, 2010
Corriveau Routhier, Manchester, NH

ALTON – Police say a 22-year veteran firefighter has confessed to setting 11 fires over the last four years in this community and in New Durham.

Stark Liedtke, 43, was arrested Friday night after police responded to a report of a suspicious person on Range Road in Alton. Liedtke was questioned by police, who said that he smelled of gasoline, and his vehicle was later found near the site of a suspicious fire that had taken place on February 20.

An accelerant sniffing dog brought to the area by Sgt. John Southwell of the state Fire Marshal’s Office led investigators to two plastic bottles of gasoline in the woods near Liedtke’s vehicle.

Investigators say that Liedtke confessed that he had been trying to set the abandoned building which had partially burned on Feb. 20 on fire and subsequently admitted to setting several other abandoned homes on fire in both Alton and New Durham.

Alton Police Chief Ryan Heath said that Liedtke was arraigned in Laconia District Court Monday morning on four charges of arson, three of which date back to 2006, and one count of attempted arson, as well as loitering or prowling and criminal trespass charges.

He is being held on $30,000 cash bail ands faces a probable cause hearing on the charges on March 31.

Heath said that the investigation is continuing and additional charges are expected to be filed.

Fire Chief Scott Williams said that Liedtke was fired from the department. He said Liedtke’s wife, who is an EMT with the department, remains a member of the department.

South Carolina Forestry released their After Action Report on the Highway 31 Fire. A previous post is here.

It is here, archived here.

This fire was first thought extinguished by the local fire department, before taking off again and consuming seventy homes and thirty one square miles.

This is a great write up of the ’47 Maine fires, archived here (You’ll need to scroll down the archive version a bit to get to the article).

It was the worst disaster in the history of forest fire protection in Maine, resulting in heavy property losses and human privation.

The tragic results were: 215,000 acres of fields, pastures and forests burned, of which 180,000 acres were forested; the death of 16 people due to indirect causes brought about by the fires, but no loss of life in actual fire fighting; nine communities leveled or completely wiped out; 2,500 made homeless. Property losses were estimated at $30,000,000 of which $7,000,000 included millions of feet of mature timber, thousands of cords of cut and uncut pulpwood, and millions of board feet of sawed lumber stored in lumberyards. Suppression costs came to $300,000. It was heart-warming that many fire departments canceled fire bills for services and equipment to towns that were stricken by the fires.

And this quote particularly impresses me:

There were witnesses of crown fires racing through dry and shriveled hardwood leaf foliage.

Which I interpret as being the heat wave ahead of the main fire was so intense as to dry out the leaves on the already drought stressed hardwoods…then ignite them as it passed.

Some interesting video came out of the Halifax fire last week of a news crew that was almost over run by the rapidly moving fire.  Rapid fire development in wildland terms is usually called a “blow up” — when a fire goes from burning surface fuels and brush to suddenly involving all fuels.  It is a phenomena similar to a flashover in structural firefighting when a critical combination of oxygen, heat, and fuel is reached and all surfaces suddenly ignite.

At the 8 second mark events occur quickly — you hear a comment about “getting dark,” then the camera has a partial white out (I assume from rapid fire growth), then the still photographer observes they have fire to their left.  Press reports have stated, per Nova Scotia Forestry, the fire spread hit speeds of 36 meters per minute.  That’s 107 chains per hour, 1.3 miles per hour, or 118′ per minute.  In Connecticut spread rates over 30 chains per hour are considered Very High fire danger days, and over 40 are Extreme.

The above video is  reminiscent to me of this video taken in the New Jersey pine barrens on 16 May 2007 when several New Jersey Forest Fire Service vehicles were involved in a near miss:

I have the above videos archived in case they disappear from YouTube, under videos.

Those videos help fill in the mental picture when you see photos like this one from Cape Cod, which has forests like the pine barrens of New Jersey:

Forest fire on Cape Cod, from Capecodfd.com

Or this AP photograph of an October, 1947 fire crossing Route 1 in Arundel, Maine:

October, 1947 Arundel, ME

When the fire is in the crown like this they can not be fought.  In general the tactic is to leave these to burn and concentrate on handling the fire later when it has left the crown and is just burning the surface and brush, as these boys from Bates College are headed to do in ’47:

Boys from Bates headed to fight fire

At Bates, nearly 300 male students, volunteered for firefighting duty. A state disaster committee dispatched the volunteers to help fight the fires in towns like Bowdoinham, Kennebunk, Cornish and Richmond. Meanwhile, female students conducted watches on campus and at Thorncrag, raked leaves away from residence halls, and collected clothing donations for the Red Cross.

Clicking on the Bates photo will bring you to a page which recounts the tale.  In case it disappears I’ve archived off a couple of the tales here.

Even the brush breakers of southeastern Massachusetts aren’t intended to attack these crown fires directly, but instead to allow them to rapidly access deep into the woods to control the fire while it’s still in the brush and not a crown fire.

Fire storms like those pictured above are not survivable to those caught in the open.  In parts of the U.S. the “fire shelter,” an aluminized tent carried on your belt is common.  Australians tend to use their fire apparatus as shelters, specially equipping them with blinds to keep out the radiant heat from the cab and misting systems to wet the outside of the truck. A flame front like that is also survivable in a properly prepared home, which it doesn’t look like the Halifax homes were, when the occupants are prepared after the flame front has passed to come out and extinguish spot fires around their property.

1 May 2006 was a day with Very High fire danger and Red Flag warnings across southern New England. Auburn, MA received a call at 10:42 for a brush fire. By the end of the afternoon 125 acres had burned, an abandoned mansion was lost, and aid from 38 towns and cities and 4 forest fire districts was required.

Approximately 80 acres of this area burned with enough intensity to kill / severely injure the canopy trees — this is highly unusual in southern New England in modern times.

Relative Humidity was low — 15-30% with northeast winds at 15mph gusting to 25mph. Showing how fast fire conditions can change in New England, only a week earlier heavy rains had crossed over southern New England, dumping between 1-1/2″ and 6″ of rain. The northeast winds portended the heavy rain that would move in on the morning of May second.

Since the fire this area was also on the edge of the December, 2008 ice storm. The impact was noticeable and would impact future operations but is not severe.

This is a map of the area from July, 2007 that shows the extensive severely burned area (the brown discolored areas). I’m eyeballing it to be about 80 acres, and the overall fire was put at 125 acres which I believe is reasonable — not all areas hit that stand killing intensity.

The fire appears to have originated south of this lane. The tree appears to have been snapped by the ice storm. A hang up like this one is a challenging one to cut safely, yet it also isn’t safe to allow forestry trucks to pass underneath — a situation that would delay access to fires along the lane in the future.

(There are smudges on the photos taken April 26, 2009 — I had water spots on my camera lens.)

Near the tail of the fire area was this tree, it’s main trunk killed by the extensive burning of it’s bark, which was “stump sprouting” new growth. Hundreds, probably thousands, of these small snags will stand for years to come, surrounded by the fine brush of regrowth.

This mountain laurel, judging from the standing dead trunk, was about 4′ tall when the fire burned. In areas the mountain laurel easily topped 6′. Like the snag in the previous picture, the dead trunk provides additional dry fuel that would intensify a future fire. Mountain laurel provided the fuel load that allowed the fire to be intense enough to kill the hardwood trees. You can read more about the fire ecology of mountain laurel here.

This is a mix of regrowing brush and some living and some fire killed overstory trees. When looking at these photos (click on them for the full size version) the tell tale sign of killed trees is the lack of the smallest branches — only the trunks and main branches remain.

A mix of living and dead trees. Approximately point “A” on the map. Fire potential here is elevated further by the lack of shade; while it may not be a critical difference in spring time this could contribute in summer and fall to the area being prone to larger, hotter fires then otherwise would occur. One of the big reasons for the decline in size and intensity of forest fires in southern New England is the success of previous generations in suppressing fires and allowing the forests to mature. While there are exceptions, in general the larger trees were more likely to survive while smaller trees were fatally injured by the flames.

More dead trees. Approximately point “B.” In the middle of the picture is the top of a white pine that broke off in the ice storm.

Many hardwood saplings coming up, I’m not sure what species these are — I should revisit later in the year when I can identify the leaves.

This is the first steep hillside — about a 30% grade. It’s also strewn with rocks, and soft soil — absolutely treacherous to walk over. The fire killed few if any trees on these steep slopes. My observation is there wasn’t much mountain laurel to provide dense amounts of fuel. From a tactical perspective, it would be near impossible to build a fire line through this mess and clambering over the terrain with an Indian Tank would be inviting a sprained ankle. Hose lines would work best, albeit slow to progress.

Looking towards the top of the hill you can see a mixture of killed trees and ice storm damage.

After a climb of 100′, we come to these flats (point “C” on the map), showing a mixture of fire and ice storm damage. The mountain laurel thickets started up again on the flats, providing the fuel for the stand killing intensity.

This picture is chilling to think of how quickly our forests could revert to this state by a combination of disturbances in quick succession — say a major hurricane followed by a few dry years and killing intensity fires burning through the slash. Like this patch, they would then be at increased risk for decades of additional fire disturbances until a mature forest can regrow.

At this point I intersected the woods road along which I took the photos in 2006. This is further west along that road, at point “D” on the map.

Looking through the woods you can see a steep rise — pushing 60% slope at parts — and then a flat area on top looking awful sparse. If you look at the map, that is the area of the most intense damage. My guess is the fire intensified from a combination of later in the day (more pre-heating), elevation (windier), and having a wider fire front. The destroyed mansion was located at the blue dot.

The woods road at this point passed through very tall, very dense mountain laurel — 6′ high or better judging from the dead trunks. Some trees had scorch marks and mushrooms growing in fire-killed bark 15′ above the ground.

The acronym LCES stands for Lookouts, Communication, Escape Routes, and Safety Zones. In this case a safety zone — ordinary hardwood duff, with it’s low, slow burning characteristics was only a hundred feet or so away in the hollow between this point at the steep hillside. However the mountain laurel looks like it would’ve been impenetrable to get there. It’s a place like this I fear seeing guys in structural bunker pants and ill fitting boots getting caught in southern New England, unable to move quickly enough down the trail to escape an oncoming fire.

Let’s review a few key pictures from the fire day itself. These were taken along the woods road at approximately point “E.” You can find more at my original write up here.

Yes, it burns! There was a small draw to the east of the road, so the fire had a uphill run to my location. I had gotten in here before I saw any firefighters or officers, so I’m not sure if they planned to make a stand here earlier or I just had good dumb luck in finding the spot.

Sturbridge working their forestry into location. This was a good location to make a stand — while you can see the higher mountain laurel in the background, between it and the fire picture above was much lower laurel — may 2′ high, probably a patch that burned years ago. They are cutting a hole in the brush to allow the unit to turn around so it can be headed out in case a quick retreat is needed. Additionally, a good safety zone is only a few dozen feet west of this location where the laurel suddenly ends and it is not so thick as to be able to be hard to move through.

Even if the picture is deceptive. We’re only on the edge of the thicket here.

Wildland gear is not standard issue in New England at this time. I honestly prefer the guy in a T-shirt, jeans, and workboots over having someone in completely inappropriate structural PPE on a woods fire — they are far more likely to seriously injure themselves from exhaustion or a fall due to wearing that gear then the guy in jeans, tee, and good boots is to burn himself. The guy wearing the good wildland guy isn’t a state guy either — it’s very unusual to see that level of complete wildland PPE on a municipal firefighter here, at best you usually see just a wildland shirt with jeans.

There is another crew working in from the railroad tracks who directly attacked the flank with a hoseline working up from the railroad tracks to the woods road (one the right or east side). One of these lines would be used to protect the Sturbridge’s position in case the fire got over the lines being made, and the other hose would be used to work a line to the left (west) of the road.

A well dressed firefighter making short work of the burning laurel. That’s an 1-1/8″ Massachusetts forestry hose line. From this point they started working the fire to the left, burning mostly in duff from here up the steep hill.

Later on, Sturbridge’s location quite safe, the crew moved from protecting it to stretching another line through the hollow to hellp with mop-up on top of the hill.

This picture shows the rather sparse laurel at this point and how easy it would be to get from the road to a safe area. This, I don’t believe, was true at point “D” as I mentioned above, where there was still a lot of thick laurel between the road and a safe zone.

I like the easy to carry bundles if you carry your hose that way. Give me a backpack though and I’d be happier.

Water supply for this area was established by Oxford laying in a 4000′ 5″ line with their reel truck. I don’t know if it was a consideration in the decision to lay a line, but by this point tankers were being used to support operations in residential areas threatened by the head of the fire.

Halifax, Nova Scotia experienced a major wildfire yesterday.  Wildfiretoday.com had this good post that alerted me to it.

Halifax, NS 30 April 2009

The statistics, per this CBC article, are:

2,000 acres
8 Homes destroyed;
7 Homes damaged:
450 Homes evacuated;
58 Firefighters(1)
5 Helicopters

Fires like this are not unprecedented in the northeast, however they are much less common then the western or southern U.S. and less common regionally then they were prior to 1955 (2).

In 1947 Maine burned.  The Portland Press Herald has this good remembrance (archive) of the fires.  As part of the reaction to that, the first interstate forest fire compact was established in 1949 — the Northeast Forest Fire Protection Commission.  This Commission expanded to an international agreement in 1969 when Quebec joined New York and the New England states as members, and later expanded to include New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

While today the states in the northeast can call for national assistance through the National Interagency Fire Center, through NFFPC manpower familiar and equipment appropriate for the typical terrain, fuels, and fire conditions in the northeast are directly available.  For example, member states and provinces have access to Quebec’s fleet of CL-215 and CL-415 water bombers, which are better suited to the regional fire situation then western style aerial tankers.

In 1951 the Commission held a major drill at Great Mountain, Norfolk, Conn., that you can read about here.

While much has changed over the last 60 years to reduce the frequency and size of typical fires, we still have woodlands that will burn ferociously in the right circumstances.

Those circumstances may not even be an extended drought; an ordinary dry periods combined with a major (or series of) forest disturbances can create serious problems.  As mentioned in a number of posts including this one yesterday, much of north-central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire are under the gun starting next year due to the ice storm this past December.  It seems a similar disturbance played a role in Halifax according to a CTV report:

The fire flared up yesterday but was thought to be under control, until winds picked up Thursday afternoon, sparking 15 metre flames that jumped from treetop to treetop.

Officials have yet to pinpoint an exact cause of the fire, but some said an abundance of brush and remnants of downed trees from Hurricane Juan in 2003 gave fuel to the fire.

5-1/2 year old dead fuels!  Hurricane Juan had made landfall at Halifax, with winds clocked at 100mph and estimates upwards of 145mph.  While downed trees in direct contact with the ground I presume would have been well on the way to rotting by now, tree tops and others that where hung up against tree trunks or stacked on top of other fallen trees and thus unable to wick up moisture from the soil would still be in decent shape to burn.

This report from the local newspaper, the Chronicle and Herald,  filed this afternoon provides some more details from the authorities:

Mr. Currie [Halifax Fire & EMS] said “the leftovers from hurricane Juan have been an issue. They’ve been an issue from the start and they still are an issue. It’s very difficult moving in and around this area with all the blow-down.”

Paul Schnurr, a forestry technician with the Department of Natural Resources, said Friday’s “wind conditions are somewhat the same (as the Porters Lake fire).”

“It’s a wind-driven fire, very fast moving, very hard to contain. It certainly moves faster than a lot of people can walk and that makes it very, very difficult.”

Fires can burn big and hot here.  Just this past Wednesday I walked a fire that was of stand killing intensity over about 60 acres back in 2006, something I will write up soon.  While I’ve seen such areas as a tourist in California, I’ve never seen an extended area in New England that had seen such intensity.  It gave me a new appreciation of how bad of shape our forests were in before modern fire suppression was well established and became effective in reducing what had been a common occurrence.  Earlier this month there was the 40 cottages lost at Alton, N.H., and now the Halifax fire.  Southern New England will experience the right circumstances again, and the level of fire activity will shock many people.

Halifax, NS 30 April 2009

(1) I assume this is probably just forestry agency personnel, and more municipal firefighters would’ve been involved.

(2) For reasons left to a future post to explain, 1955 seems to be a good demarcation point to mark when “modern” forest fire protection all came together and gelled into an effective system in New England and it was clear that frequent, major fires were on the decline.  A pioneering fire warden from 1915 would be amazed to see how things had changed by 1955; a fire warden from 1955 would recognize today as essentially the same as his time in organization, strategy, tactics, and tools — albeit tweaked and improved.

Deerfield, MA experienced a 50 acre brush fire on Friday.

This television report found an interesting story within a story about some prep school students who volunteer with Deerfield:

By Matthew Campbell

Story Published: Apr 24, 2009 at 11:27 PM EDT

Story Updated: Apr 24, 2009 at 11:27 PM EDT

A raging brush fire burns 50 acres in Deerfield. 100 firefighters were deployed to the scene paralleling Upper Road, including some volunteer firefighters who were put to the test.

It’s the biggest brush fire in recent years, and it started in Deerfield. 50 acres were seen smoldering along the train tracks.

“We have approximately 80-100 firefighters deployed,” says Greenfield Fire Chief, Michael Winn.

Many on the Friday afternoon scene were volunteer firefighters, including four junior firefighters from Deerfield Academy.

“You got this horn. When it goes off, you sprint out of class and hope you have a spot on the firetruck,” says Cooper Magoon, a Jr. Firefighter.

“It was the first one I’ve been on that was an actual fire going on,” he says.

It started as a school-town partnership. Kids looking to explore fire training get real life experience, but Friday’s blaze was the biggest they fought, and the biggest they may ever see.

“I came in on one of the first trucks on the Deerfield brush truck and it was ripping. When we came by, there were flames all over the right side by the train tracks, I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Ryan Erf, a first year Jr. firefighter.

“Just the whole side was just covered in fire going all the way up the hill,” says Michael Mazur, describing the flames.

The fire extended and tore through the Deerfield woods. At no time were any homes threatened. That’s because the junior firefighters were dousing the outskirts, making sure, it didn’t spread.

“We’d be stamping out, or putting out the fire on the edge of the fireline,” says veteran firefighter Will Hickey.

It’s an experience they’ll never forget, and one, that makes them think about their firefighting future.

“I don’t know about their full time profession, but it’s something to consider,” Erf says.

The fire is out, but crews will be redeployed on Saturday and Sunday to recheck some of the hot spots.

The tuition and fees for Deerfield Academy currently are a bit over $40,000.

WWLP reported the fire took 3-1/2 hours to control and

Chief Yazwynski told 22News that the blaze was likely caused by a passing train. The  train sparked numerous fires in about 8-9 different locations along the track.

Trains also caused this blaze on Saturday in New Hampshire:

Published: April 26, 2009 12:30 am

Passing train sparks 3 town brush fire

By James A. Kimble
jkimble@eagletribune.com

NEWTON, N.H. — An army of firefighters spent much of yesterday afternoon dousing a series of brush fires in Newton, Kingston and Plaistow believed to have been started by sparks from a passing train.

Around 2 p.m., firefighters were called to the area of George’s Way and Cranes Crossing in Newton, a rural neighborhood near the Pan Am railways.

The train was coming from the state line, and traveled through Plaistow, Newton and into Kingston. The fires broke out in wooded and grassy areas along the tracks.

The four-alarm blaze stretched for miles, and brought out roughly a dozen fire departments from New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Newton Selectmen Chairman Trisha McCarthy, who was manning the phones at the fire station yesterday, said the blaze appears to have started when a train coming from Plaistow through Newton to Kingston had its brakes lock up, sending sparks flying and starting fires in all three towns.

The fire claimed one trailer in the Whispering Pines Camping area in Newton, and one firefighter had to be taken to the hospital, according to Newton fire Capt. Dale Putnam. An update on the firefighter’s condition was not available last night.

Kingston fire Capt. John Merrill said his department sent at least a dozen firefighters to help, along with two engine trucks, a tanker and a forestry vehicle. The fire burned as temperatures topped 80 degrees, the warmest day so far this spring.

Merrill said the train was eventually stopped in Newfields to determine what had caused it to spark.

By early evening, firefighters were still on the scene, dousing hot spots along the tracks.

The Deerfield fire was also along a Pan Am railway.

Highway 31 Fire, Horry County, S.C.

South Carolina Forestry have posted some good photos here of the fire burning near Myrtle Beach (discussed a bit in this post) in Horry County, S.C.  It’s officially named the Highway 31 Fire.

Myrtle Beach is named after the Wax Myrtle plant, a fire adapted species that grows abundantly in the area.  The oils that give the plant it’s “Wax” name ignite quite easily.

In their Sunday update I found this that I thought was well written for communicating with the public:

Mop-up phase has already begun in most areas of the fire. Mop-up activity is especially noticeable along Hwy 90.  (see map at www.trees.sc.gov).  Mop-up involves crews patrolling the fire area inside the lines and attacking with water/foam isolated spots (often stumpholes and standing trees) which continue to burn.  This is a very laborious process, involving turning burning vegetation over with hand tools and soaking with water.  The intent of this process is to cool off smoldering debris so embers do not blow across the fire line.  This operation takes a long time and requires a significant amount of resources, but is essential to prevent the fire’s spread.  It will constitute the most time spent on this fire by the South Carolina Forestry Commission, possibly extending the effort by weeks.

In case they disappear from the ‘net, I have them archived here.  Found a Firefox plugin called “ScrapBook” that I used for the first time to capture that page…looks like that could be a very useful tool!

This is a good story for an officer to open a training meeting or a kitchen table session with:

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.—South Carolina’s forest fire chief said Friday that local firefighters thought they’d extinguished a yard blaze last weekend that rekindled days later, destroying some 70 homes and charring 31 square miles near Myrtle Beach. Officials said homes were still being threatened by the flames.

Forestry Commission Forest Protection Chief Darryl Jones said he did not know which local agency responded to the yard fire last weekend. He said firefighters doused the blaze with water and thought it was out, and that the person who is being fined for burning the debris is to blame.

He said it’s common for brush fires to appear to be out but then smolder underground and rekindle.

“The fire department didn’t start the fire.” Jones said. “Someone lit it and somebody let it escape and that’s where this all started.”

Boston Globe, 24 April 2009

Since I first wrote this post, there has been some mild counter-charging going on between the homeowner, SC Forestry, and Horry County Fire:

SC woman: Don’t blame husband for wildfire

Posted: Apr 24, 2009 3:22 PM EDT Updated: Apr 26, 2009 8:48 PM EDT

CONWAY, SC (WMBF) – The wife of a man who started a South Carolina trash fire that is blamed for igniting a raging wildfire that has destroyed more than 20,000 acres of land says her family did everything they could to put out the weekend blaze.

Megan Brogan, whose husband Mark Torchi has been ticketed in connection to the Horry County wildfire, says he called 911 when the trash he was burning got out of control.  She says Horry County firefighters responded, but did nothing to fight the fire and her family doused it with a hose.

“They told us ‘Don’t worry about it.  The fire is extintuished,’” Brogan told WMBF News on Sunday afternoon.  “There was no fire, no smoke, no smoldering for four days.”

Horry County Fire Rescue spokesman Todd Cartner, however, is defending the actions of his company’s firefighters Friday night.

Cartner says according to 911 records, responders were dispatched to the Torchi home, located on Woodlawn Drive, twice last Saturday.  Upon arrival to the first call, scanner traffic archives for Horry County show the residents called back to emergency dispatch, cancelling the call.

Horry County Fire Rescue policy shows that despite a residence cancelling a call, fire engines still respond.  After arriving, responders deemed the fire Torchi was burning was under control.

An hour later, fire fighters responded to the residence a second time, and that time doused the blaze with water.  Responders were on scene for an hour and a half, Cartner noted.

According to Horry County Fire Rescue records, the fire was completely extinguished by the fire department on the second visit to the Woodlawn Drive residence.  Cartner says no other calls were placed from that address regarding a fire until Wednesday at 12:01 p.m.

When I first joined the Chiefs really emphasized raking a good line around any brush / woods fire. Grass not really, but anywhere leaves were present that could keep embers sheltered from water.

With Class A & CAFS we got away from that being an ironclad rule, and I don’t think that’s unreasonable in most situations. Put 20′ of white, wet stuff down around the perimeter it’s going to seriously complicate any re-kindle. Gotta be white, wet alone is not good enough as it could run off too easily and leave dry patches under the leaves.

But you should always consider, based on your local fire behavior, whether you should make a line.

There’s times even that CAFS and even making a line is simply not good enough. In my area that’s middle of the summer fires. Those are the ones that don’t cover much surface area, but will smoulder deep along roots and re-emerge.

A foam line doesn’t mean much, ’cause the fire may remerge a day or two later and take off on the surface that’s dried out again. So then you need to pick a and rake a line say 50′ out from the existing perimeter and hope no fire pops up outside of that. But you can’t call it quits with just that.

Return the next morning and afternoon, and maybe the next, at least to check the area for contiuing signs of fire. I know we’ve had some summer fires where we just left the hoses to the road in place for most of a week so each afternoon the crews could return and wet down and grub up some more whatever had started smouldering overnight.