The Wooden Nutmeg

Couple articles were in Saturday’s Worcester Telegram & Gazette:

Plans shape up to deal with post-storms fire threat
Emergency traffic paths cleared

By Bradford L. Miner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

State Forest Fire Warden David V. Celino checks cleared fire roads yesterday in Brimfield State Forest near the tornado blow-down area.
(T&G Staff/BRADFORD L. MINER)
» Enlarge photo
Four weather disasters in seven months — a tornado, two tropical storms and a late fall snowstorm — has left much of Central Massachusetts looking like one industrial-strength brush pile.

From main highways and back roads throughout the region still sidelined with debris to significantly larger than usual brush piles in backyards, everyone from individuals to state agencies is asking, “What do we do with it?”

And some, like David V. Celino, state forest fire warden for the Department of Conservation and Recreation, are already looking ahead to the threat represented by branches, limbs and whole trees on the ground come spring and the 2012 forest fire season.

At Brimfield State Forest, hardest hit of the DCR properties from the weather events, Mr. Celino this week checked the work done by Mayer Tree Service during the month of September, clearing roads, fire lanes, hiking trails, the day use area and the administrative complex.

Given that unusual weather contributed to an unprecedented amount of fuel on the ground, Mr. Celino said it will be weather this winter and throughout the coming spring that ultimately determines the severity and duration of the forest fire season.

He said he was pleased to see even just a dusting of snow on the ground, saying that dead vegetation on the ground will have had ample time to dry out or “cure,” by March or April, unless it’s been sitting beneath a foot or more of snow for most of the winter.

“The weather has been like a double-edged sword,” he said, citing on one hand the extraordinary amount of damage to the state’s forests, and on the other, the day-to-day wetter than usual weather throughout the fall.

“Fortunately, that has slowed the curing process for all of the fuel on the ground since the tornado,” he said.

The chief fire warden said the monthlong effort by Mayer Tree Service of Essex had improved access to any wildlands fire in the state forest for brush firetrucks and other fire apparatus, but mounting a direct attack on any fire even a hundred yards off any of the fire roads presented a tactical challenge because the better part of a thousand acres was still inaccessible.

“We’re looking at a situation where we might have to rely on an aerial attack, using helicopters, drawing from the closest water source here. Otherwise, we have a fire bulldozer that could be deployed here as well, if necessary,” he said.

According to Peter Church, director of Forest Stewardship for DCR, the tree service cleared the primary roads and unimproved fire lanes, many of the trails, the day use area and the administrative office and garage complex.

Mr. Church said while the DCR was still assessing damage to parks and forests across the state from the subsequent storms, dealing with the tornado damage at Brimfield had been a priority.

The fire warden said even with improved access, speed would be critical, mounting an initial attack, even in the more remote areas, as quickly as possible to control the spread of any fire.

Mr. Celino said many of the state forests and parks, particularly in the Holyoke Range still have blocked roads and trails from the Oct. 29 snowstorm, but that is not as critical as the tornado blow-down areas that have a five-month head start in drying over the limbs and trees brought down by the snowstorm.

“If we have an open winter, with little or no snow cover and warmer than usual temperatures will be problematic, going into brush fire season with drier than usual conditions in the forests and blow-down areas,” he said.

Given that many brush fires each spring originate as out-of-control brush pile fires, Mr. Celino’s advice to homeowners is simple: “Don’t wait.”

He said open burning season begins Jan. 15 and recommended that brush piles be covered until then with a tarp to keep them dry enough to burn.

“The first occasion after the 15th when there’s little or no wind and at least a few inches of snow on the ground, that’s when as much brush as possible should be burned. Waiting until the end of the brush burning season in April is just asking for trouble,” he said.

As a proactive measure, Mr. Celino said between now and the start of brush fire season he and his Forest Fire Control crew would be having training sessions for fire departments in Brimfield, Monson, Sturbridge and Southbridge, and other communities to the west having been hit by the tornado to provide skills in tackling a wildlands fire which would likely be more intense than an average brush fire where the amount of fuel on the ground is much less.

Mr. Church called the amount of storm damage to DCR properties as unprecedented.

Nonetheless, he said, it was immediately apparent there was a public safety component to the blocked roads, fire lanes, and trails, as well as the day use and headquarters areas that would have to be addressed.

Mr. Church said DCR’s safety concern was twofold — a brush fire in central area of the blow-down as well as any fire on the perimeter of the state property that threatened private homes.

“We started in September and cleared all the fire roads, hiking trails, the day use area and the area around the administration building.” He said the work took about a month. The second phase will consider the homes abutting the DCR boundaries and whether establishing a fire break would be necessary to address the amount of fuel on the ground. There are a number of private properties on Dearth Hill Road, that are like pockets within the park, and we’ll be doing an assessment of those sites within the next couple of months to see if more clearing is warranted.

The cost of the Brimfield forest cleanup was $140,000.

He said DCR foresters would do an assessment of the blow-down area to determine if any of it had salvage value to offset the cost to date of the cleanup.

Edward M. Lambert Jr., DCR commissioner said, “DCR is deeply committed to the rehabilitation of its forests and parks following a year of intense weather and extensive damage to these well-loved spaces.”

“That said, following the most recent storm in October, our first concern was assisting cities, towns and locals in removing dangerous downed trees and materials to clear the way for utility and emergency workers to get residents back online and safe in their homes and communities. With that work mostly complete, DCR refocused its staff, equipment and energy on reopening and rehabilitating our parks and forests,” the commissioner said.

Mr. Lambert said agency personnel, hikers and avid outdoors people, shared the public’s eagerness to get back to the parks; but as stewards, DCR had an obligation to be sure it is safe for visitors before we reopen.”

http://www.telegram.com/article/20111210/NEWS/112109881/1101/local

Group wants bids on wood cleanup

By Bradford L. Miner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The Massachusetts Wood Producers Association wants the state to put thousands of acres of forest damaged by the June 1 tornado, the two tropical storms and the Oct. 29 snowstorm up for salvage bid.

Jeff Poirier, president of the group representing loggers, foresters, sawmill operators, firewood dealers and landowners, has asked Richard K. Sullivan Jr., secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, to move beyond the cleanup efforts to date that have focused on public safety.

“The Commonwealth has not responded to its forest stewardship responsibility to salvage forest products or conduct meaningful forest restoration,” Mr. Poirier stated in a letter to the EEA secretary.

Mr. Poirier said the association is concerned that the state’s lack of action increases the risk of forest fires at the same time reducing potential benefits to the local economy and revenue to communities from the Forest Products Trust Fund.

“Thousands of acres of off-road, interior damage remain at a time when impacted cities and towns are most in need of the added revenue salvage operations would bring as well as the cleanup essential for tourist recreational activities,” the letter stated.

Critical of the state’s revised policies on forest management on state land, Mr. Poirier said the forest and woods products industry has been adversely affected by the combination of the poor economy and the state’s moratorium on logging properties managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, including the Quabbin, Ware River and Wachusett watersheds.

“The Massachusetts Wood Producers Association is very concerned that as months pass by without initiating a serious forest restoration effort, the opportunity to salvage forest products economically is decreasing dramatically due to forest insects, diseases, and diminished quality of the timber,” Mr. Poirier said.

He said it was counterproductive for state agencies to pay tree service companies to remove damaged timber when the state could be making money by putting out bids and awarding contracts.

“This is a great opportunity for the public to experience and appreciate the value and skill of our forest-based economy, significantly damaged by the recent turmoil and visioning process,” Mr. Poirier said.

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20111210%2FNEWS%2F112109968%2F1101%2Flocal

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:

Photo essay from the Wood River Valley area: http://d90.us/wooden_nutmeg/essays/Arcadia_2010/

A really great write up of managing fire in New England Pine Barrens, archive here.

In addition to those “natural community” issues, few active firefighters have seen truly severe fire conditions in New England.

Although rainfall alone doesn’t dictate fire danger (frequency of rain is likely much more important in New England in keeping fire danger to “high” or below), the following graphs show a very sharp difference between pre-1970 and post-1970 climate. You can get more data for different regions of the New England states here.

I strongly suspect that it is not coincidence that we haven’t had a serious forest fire problem in southern New England since the early 1960s. Before, roughly, 1970 we used to experience a deep drought about every ten years. Nothing since 1970 has matched those 10 year droughts.

Also I’m still researching the frequency rain events. Rain tends to “reset” the fire danger.

Let’s assume a cycle like this; while conjecture it’s not an unreasonable cycle based on my observations over the years:
Day 1: Rain (Low danger)
Day 2: Moderate
Day 3: High
Day 4: High
Day 5: High
Day 6: High
Day 7: Very High
Day 8: Very High
Day 9: Very High
Day 10: Rain (Low)

Now add in one overnight rain:
Day 1: Rain (Low danger)
Day 2: Moderate
Day 3: High
Day 4: High
Day 5: Rain overnight (moderate)
Day 6: Moderate
Day 7: High
Day 8: High
Day 9: High
Day 10: Rain (Low)

Most people wouldn’t notice a major impact from an extra shower or two in April, but it could be having a very large impact on fire danger.

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.

Slowly rotting away. The metal looks in good shape, not sure I’d trust the wood anymore!

Rhode Island stopped routinely staffing their fire towers around 1990, although some are occasionally staffed by the DEM on the worse fire danger days. Esocheag seems to get no love. This tower was erected in 1938, is 80′ high, and sits at 560′ above sea level. Photos from 2004 and 1990 can be found here. (In those pictures you’ll see a “candy cane” radio tower, that is no longer there. There is a newer tower which is un-painted and I believe shorter. It may have been erected a little further south then the radio tower in the older pictures, too.)

This tower would’ve looked down at a 30,000 acre fire a few miles to it’s north in 1942, and nine years later it would witness an 8,000 acre fire burning just to it’s south.

I do have mixed feelings on fire towers. From a romantic standpoint, I think they’re cool. From an economic standpoint, you would have to have some sharp pencils to show me that they are cost effective. There are some volunteer staffing programs around the nation (see this post), and it makes me wonder if you compromised with the State maintaining the towers and retired (but in good health) volunteers manning them the few critical weeks each year if it would be a reasonable compromise.

When Connecticut discontinued their fire towers in the 1980s they removed them, so at least we don’t have pathetic sights like watching Esocheag rot away. Massachusetts still staffs a number of their towers, with more in a “reserve” status that sees them manned occasionally. When listening to a fire in Dudley last week when the Charlton tower was closed due to lack of staff, the Patrolman from Douglas State Forest went up the Oxford tower to get a third, more accurate line since the towers in Princeton and Mendon were having difficulty pinpointing it and determining if it was a single and not multiple fires.

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.

One of the best articles I’ve read on the use of prescribed fire on Cape Cod’s Pitch Pine & Scrub Oak Barrens: Bringing Back the Burn from the July 2005 issue of Northern Sky News. Archived here.

Following up on this earlier post.

Bottom line:
15 full-time Patrolmen where given layoff notices.
6 were saved for the year by funding the Federal Stimulus funds.
7 “bumped” themselves into other DCR positions (laying off junior employees in those positions).
2 were laid off.

They have a seasonal force of 54.

This is down from the early 1980s when they had, in addition to 16 Patrolmen, 53 fulltime firefighters who worked both on apparatus and towers as needed, plus 104 seasonal firefighters.

Interesting reply from this T&G Article:

Its 13 fire districts for 13 Wardens and one Chief.In those 13 fire districts they had a total of 16 fire patrolman positions to cover the whole state of Massachusetts.

Only 6 Patrolman positions was saved, 4 in the Southeast down the cape region,1-North Middlesex and 1-Hampshire County on federal grant programs for a year or two .

So actually they lost 10 fire patrolman positions not funded anymore and never could fill the 53-fulltime fire truck & tower positions that was never filled thru the many years when they became vacant from retirement,they just kept on cutting positions of about 53 fulltime fire positions gone already since the 80′s..

They also had back then 104 fire seasonal employees to man all 52 towers to fill in on days off & assisting the engine operators fighting fires ,each district had at least one fulltime tower man so in case the fire tower was needed in the late fall or winter dry season the tower position would be manned.Remember the seasonal tower positions are only staff from April to October,.That leaves out the months of November, December, January, February, March if there is no snow cover and have a dry period of no snow,warm temps,low humidity you could still have fire breaking out and it has happen before past fire history.

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And the main article:

By Brian Lee TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
9 comments | Add a comment

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Recent significant brush fires after record rainfalls have surprised some people, a state official said.

But all the ingredients, including the aftereffects of the December 2008 ice storm, are in place for such fires, said David Celino, the state’s chief forest fire warden in the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.

“It does take the public by surprise, especially when we have open burning through May 1,” Mr. Celino said. “People, coming off the rains with historical flooding, look at the idea of having a fire threat as not there, when in fact it’s easy to get escape fires with this kind of a weather pattern.”

Among the incidents was last week’s 350-acre brushfire on Tekoa Mountain in the western Massachusetts town of Russell. State officials put together a 20-person crew out of the DCR to contain it within two days, Mr. Celino said.

In Central Massachusetts, there was an estimated 55-acre brush fire in Dudley Tuesday. It was in a heavily wooded area between Hayden Pond and Corbin and Baker Pond roads near the Charlton and Oxford lines.

It took about six hours and firefighters from six surrounding towns and the DCR to extinguish the fire, according to Dudley Fire Capt. David J. Konieczny, whose department walked the area Wednesday to make sure it was completely out.

Earlier this month there was a six-acre brush fire on the south scenic face of Mount Pisgah Conservation Area Trail in Northboro.

According to Mr. Celino, in many cases the ice storm increased the volume of tree limbs and branches on the ground, particularly in central and northern Worcester County, into Hampshire and Franklin counties and central and northern Berkshire County at elevations higher than 1,000 feet.

A year later the fuels on the ground have cured in the affected areas, creating the problem, he said.

After a year of curing, and with the recent rains, the area has seen fine fuels such as leaf litter, sticks and twigs become main carriers for some fires, he said.

The rainfalls were followed by dry air from the Arctic region. The low humidity and dew points can essentially dry out in less than a day the light surface fuels, Mr. Celino said.

Add to it southerly warm and dry winds and it makes for high fire danger, he said.

Capt. Konieczny of Dudley said he was impressed that the fire was first seen from a DCR fire observation tower in Princeton, quite a distance from a tower in Charlton that was not staffed at the time.

Mr. Celino said there was good visibility that day.

“The Dudley fire was a great example of how we were able to make the best of what we have,” he said. “The towers were able to locate that fire and then we were able to put state resources on the fire to help get containment.”

However, staffing levels in the towers concern Northboro Fire Chief David M. Durgin, who said he believed it played a factor in the Mount Pisgah fire. He said fire towers in Princeton and Sudbury were not staffed at the time, so they couldn’t see it.

“That’s why the fire ended up being as large as it was, six acres, and no early notification,” he said.

In October, Chief Durgin wrote his local legislators stating his concern about potential DCR staffing levels as a result of budget cuts.

“It’s a case where the state is saving money, but the cities and towns, even if someone had been put in those two towers on overtime that day, it would have been cheaper than the ultimate costs of the number of towns I had to bring in mutual aid to extinguish that fire,” he said.

Mr. Celino said the tower program is his agency’s top priority.

“We know that it’s valuable to the fire service, getting early detection, and so even though we did go through part of a staff reduction plan, we realized that the tower program is a priority,” he said.

Its seasonal roster reflected that concern, as seasonal workers were brought in earlier than usual this year, he said.

There are more than 40 fire towers statewide. Most are staffed by seasonal workers, Mr. Celino said. The agency is employing 54 seasonal workers throughout the state through the first week of October.

During high fire danger days the state can staff about 22 towers, depending on what the shifts are, he said.

“If we can get anywhere from 17 to 22 of those towers up, and those are our key towers, they provide us pretty good coverage across the state,” Mr. Celino said.

The DCR has 13 district fire wardens and six patrolmen who work with towns during fire season, as well as with the seasonal workers, he said.

Last October, 15 patrolmen received layoff notices but only two were laid off. Six jobs were saved with federal stimulus money, and seven went elsewhere in the agency through bargaining rights, Mr. Celino said.

State Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, said his office has been in touch with the state office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and the DCR. They were told that the federal stimulus money that was allotted at the beginning of this season will last for two seasons to keep the towers manned.

“The challenge for the forest fire issue is what happens when the federal stimulus money goes away?” the senator said, adding he hoped that things would get better as the economy improves.

Because some forest fires along the Route 2 corridor are caused by train sparks, he said he would be “more than happy to go after the railroads” for liability.

“If Joe Six-Pack threw a cigarette they’d be going after him, that’s for sure,” Mr. Brewer said.

Patricia A. Correia, fire warden in northern Worcester County, was at a three-acre brush fire Wednesday at Bearsden Conservation Area in Athol. She said its cause was most likely the railroad that runs through the conservation area.

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.

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.

Nice article from the Vineyard Gazette on prescribed burns on the Vineyard. Archived here.

This included mentions of some major historical fires:
May 12, 1916: 20 square miles, blamed for extinction of the heath hen.
1926: 10 square miles for the year
1927: 10 square miles for the year
1929: 4 square miles for the year

I’ll try and follow up in person to see if these layoffs did occur. My understanding is the fire patrolmen all had enough seniority they would be “bumping” — while the Patrolman positions would be eliminated, the actual worker would “bump” someone else and take their job causing junior employees to actually be laid off.

Checking the DCR’s website today, they are hiring seasonal tower operators in at least Carver and Sandwich, and a seasonal “fire laborer” in Leominister.

Mass. fire officials fuming over wildland staffing cuts
October 22nd, 2009

BOSTON — Fire officials are fuming that high-paid pals of Gov. Deval Patrick have kept their cushy Department of Conservation posts while the agency is axing more than half of the state’s 30 forest firefighters.

The layoff of 17 forest firefighters will leave just one per county and means the state’s 42 fire towers — perches used to spot flare-ups — will go unmanned, officials said.

“It’s going to be a big hit to public safety,” said Trevor Augustino, vice-president of the American Federation of State, County and Municpal Employees Local 2948, which represents the forest firefighters. “They’re cutting with an ax, not a scalpel.”

The Herald reported yesterday that the DCR terminated 91 workers, but kept Patrick’s campaign manager’s sister, Patty Vantine, and two other managers she hired. The three make a combined $251,000 annually.

DCR spokeswoman Lisa Capone said 57 of the terminations were voluntary while 34 were pinkslipped. Of those 91, seven were managers. “Those percentages reflect the proportion of union vs. management throughout the agency,” she said.

Orange Fire Chief Dennis Annear, president of the Massachusetts Forest Fire Council, said the cuts have “destroyed” an effective service that’s been around for 100 years. Annear said the DCR jakes are crucial in rural western Massachusetts where they often lead under-trained volunteers into dangerous blazes.

“We use these individuals to lead a crew,” Annear said. “Some departments don’t have the right protective gear to go out in the woods and they definitely don’t have that expertise.”

Annear said the cuts are particularly painful since the DCR has been aggressively promoting tourism at state parks.

“Tourism is great but somebody’s got to pay to treat these people or go rescue them in the woods,” he said.

Capone said the DCR is “maintaining our commitment to public safety.”

Copyright 2009 Boston Herald Inc.

By Dave Wedge
The Boston Herald

I also found this in the November 11, 2009 DCR Stewardship Council minutes:

Patti Vantine, Director of Administration and Finance informed the Council on/of the following matters:

The magnitude of the current (2010) operating 9c cut was between 4-8%, however the final
requirement for DCR is 5.2%.

Cuts have been saved by mandatory management furlough up to nine days, an unspecific cut,
and an earmark that was removed.

Voluntary layoff and retirements are being wrapped up, and involuntary layoffs are nearing the
end of the bumping process.

A final projection number will be tallied once the full bumping/retirement process is complete.

Our state revenue has slightly increased for October.
o DCR was able to maintain six firefighters, one Warden in each district.
o The overall budget for DCR is $78,348,984 after the 9c budget cuts.
o Environmental Police has taken a $1.5m cut.

(DCR also transferred many of their parkway and bridge assets from the “Emerald Necklace” system around Boston to the newly formed MassDOT … I wonder how that factored into budget cuts if at all? Later on in the minutes it reported 55 DCR employees transferred to MassDOT, but that DCR would still provide snow control for the current budget year.)

A January, 2010 presentation noted that the DCR had seen it’s operating budget cut by 23% from FY2009 to mid-year FY2010. In 18 months it had lost 171 full time positions, including 54 to voluntary layoff / retirements, 37 unfilled positions eliminated, and 29 layoffs.

From powering trucks to portable pumps, the internal combustion engine was one the major technological innovations that improved forest fire fighting, allowing firefighters to respond quickly over long distances to deliver large volumes of water.

Imagine trying to keep a fire small when depending on horses to transport your equipment, and without many of the improved tools of today!

This is a New Jersey fire warden from 1911 (from the book New Jersey Forest Fire Service) equipped with shovels, milk cans (used to carry water), garden watering cans, and some sort of larger tank.

New Jersey Fire Warden Victor Bush, 1911

From Britt Crosby’s CapeCodFD.com site we have an early fire wagon in Massachusetts:

Men filling soda acid extinguishers, Southeastern Massachusetts

Soda acid extinguishers required a recharge cartridge of sulfuric acid and sodium bicarbonate; inverting the extinguisher would produce carbond dioxide which would pressurize the extinguisher.  Each extinguisher held 2-1/2 to 3 gallons of water and depending on the fire intensity, terrain, and skill of the firefighter could knock down 50′ to 200′ of surface fire.

The Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control built specialized wagons to use instead of the adapted farm wagons above that were discussed in the 1918 book, “Forestry in New England.”  While in use throughout the eastern part of the state they were most common in the southeastern section.

A two horse model, like the one below, carried 14 soda acid extinguishers, 14 water cans and sufficient to refill 2 extinguishers each, shovels, rakes, mattocks, and chemical charges, along with 8 men.

Massachusetts two horse forest fire wagon

The one horse model below was carried a smaller amount of equipment and only four men. Basic apparatus economics held true even back then.  A one horse wagon cost $300, while the two horse wagon carrying twice the equipment and manpower only raised the price to $450.

Massachusetts one horse forest fire wagon

Another early option to either watering cans or soda acid extinguishers was the one and two man bucket pumps.   A one man pump, like the one below, carried four gallons of water and was considered adequate to knock down 50′ to 150′ of fire.  It was considered a little less efficient, but considerably cheaper to purchase and recharge, then a soda acid extinguisher.

One man pump

A two man pump carried eight gallons and took two men to carry.

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.

Today’s Worcester Telegram & Gazette has a very well done article (archive) discussing the potential impact on forest fires of the December ice storm.

David Celino, the state’s chief forest fire warden, said weather is the key factor and changes from week to week, citing a recent seven-day span when very dry air, a steady breeze and dry fuel on the ground created optimum brush fire conditions.

What makes this spring’s brush fire season, and those for the next several years, unusual is the tree damage from the ice storm.

Mr. Celino acknowledged the dual challenge of safety and logistics.

“There is the obvious issue of trying to walk through woods over downed limbs to reach a fire. And there’s the other issue of broken-off limbs that are weakened and hanging that could come down at any time, causing injury, he said.

“Next fall, next spring, the fall of 2010, that’s when the ice storm damage begins to pose a fuel issue, as the broken limbs, that are now still green, dry out and add to the problem of fuel on the forest floor,” he said.

Ashburnham Fire Chief Paul J. Zbikowski said his department has been fortunate so far, in that there haven’t been any brush fire calls “too deep into the woods.”

“The reports I’ve been getting are that what we see along the edge of the roads is nothing compared to what we’d be likely to encounter in the deep woods, say in the state forest. There is debris everywhere on the ground, and entire areas are impassable,” he said

“One of our priorities is to get our dirt fire roads opened and passable as quickly as possible. That at least gets us closer to the fire. Once we get off the road and into the woods, we’re trying to navigate around downed limbs and trees while carrying 5 gallons of water in a backpack pump,” Chief Zbikowski said.

I’ve already touched on this specific topic, organized under Disturbances, Ice Storm.

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.

The Lexington Firefighter’s union site had quite a few photos posted from their fire on Friday, which is worth expanding beyond the brief mention yesterday’s morning report.  Approximately 110 acres in and around the 183 acre Arlington Great Meadow burned (while in Lexington, the area is owned by neighboring Arlington and is land originally procured for an abandoned public works project).

Their full set of pictures are here.

This picture is pretty typical of many of backyards we see in New England.   We’re well into the “green up” of grass, with short lawns among the first to become green.  It makes a nice fire break around the house that protect them from brush and ground cover fires like this one.  Leaves this time of year don’t blow around much — the ones on the lawn are almost certainly left overs from last fall.  A picture like this in the fall could be much more dangerous — with blowing leaves spreading the fire much faster then wind alone, and blowing burning leaves up against houses and under porches were they ignite other built up leaves.

Good view of transition from forest duff to greening lawn:

The TV reports were a bit melodramatic, although I’d recommend more PPE then the shorts and sneakers by the homeowner here.  Jeans and boots anyone?

Pitch Pine / Oak forest.

In heavier Pitch Pine / Oak brush.  This is one place you can get in trouble if you’re on the windward side of the fire, since the brush will slow your retreat if things go bad.

Meadow burning.  This is a “wet meadow” — the grasses are growing in a low lying wetlands area.  Many old settlements in New England are found near such meadows.  Often the pioneers would extirpate beavers in the area, drain the pond, and use the lush native grasses that came up in the spring as their first year’s hay and forage for animals while they continued to clear farmland.

For reasons I haven’t researched the why of yet, wetland grasses seem to green up later then dryland grasses.  I suspect it’s similar to why short lawns green up before an un-mowed field.

The interface between grass and woods can create large fires quickly.  Fires in grass typically move faster then on forest duff.  Grass on dry land is very easy to fight — water usually knocks them down without need to overhaul or stay and soak extensively.  A grass fire can quickly create a large fire front that then enters the woods, were they move more slowly but are more time consuming to fight.  Wetland grass fires are very tough to fight, however, due to limited access due to sinking in the mud.

Very few departments in New England have appropriate PPE for wildfires.  I am firmly of the belief you’re more likely to be injured, and injured worse, wearing complete or partial bunker gear then just jeans and work boots.  The patrolman wearing good PPE is from the Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control.

Who is likely to be able to work longer with less fatigue?  Additionally, one of these years we will have a truly bad year with critical fire conditions and some crew is going to get themselves into a drop tools and run situation, and bunker pants will slow them down from escaping, but offer no meaningful protection when caught.

I don’t believe conditions are such to warrant full nomex outfits and fire shelters, either.  But a wildland jacket to protect your arms, your structural helmet and goggles for head and eye protection, gloves, and jeans with lace-up boots would be a good compromise of endurance, mobility, and protection.

Thought this was interesting to record.  One hopes it was accidental.

Brush fire ties up I-95 traffic
BY STEPHEN PETERSON SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Saturday, April 18, 2009 4:47 PM EDT

Warm, dry and windy weather sparked numerous brush fires in the area for a second straight day today, including a massive blaze that tied up traffic and firefighters on Interstate 95 North in Attleboro most of the afternoon.

The highway blaze extended all the way to Route 123 and near the Attleboro Industrial Park, and included woodlands off Tiffany and Read streets. There was fire near Home Depot off Route 1A and the former Jostens building, and power lines.

Another fire was reported near the rest area off the highway, also about 1 p.m.

Since there were no area fire hydrants, numerous tanker trucks had to be called through a regional task force.

Brush trucks from State Forestry and Plainville responded. Attleboro had at least four engines at the fire, and North Attleboro, Pawtucket, Rehoboth, and Raynham also helped. About the same time, a brush fire off Collins Street threatened condominiums and burned a fence in Attleboro

Other brush fires were reported after 4 p.m. off Reservoir and Dean streets in Norton.

It marked the second day of brush fires in the area.

Attleboro firefighters early Friday night were tied up for over two hours battling a brush fire that burned about an acre near the water treatment plant off Pond Street. North Attleboro firefighters also tackled a few brush fires but they were minor.

Let’s ponder the difference a day would make:

Today: Light winds, 30% RH.
Yesterday: West winds, gusting to 25mph, 15% RH. Note the fires along I-95 were northbound, so a west wind would’ve pushed them away from the highway.

Nifty article in the Boston Globe brought to our attention via WildfireToday.

On April 30, 1844, Thoreau started a blaze in the Concord Woods, scorching a 300-acre swath of earth between Fair Haven Bay and Concord.

This is a story I’ll have to dig into some more in the future.

Found this interesting 1927 Fire Weather Study (archive) recently, which included a couple interesting observations:

The fire records are for the following counties: Worcester County, the western half of Middlesex County, and the eastern half of Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden Counties.  The total area of the region is approximately 1,750,000 acres, the greater part of which is included in the so-called white pine region.

This is before the 1938 Hurricane, and it would be interesting to research further if it was still considered “white pine region” after that storm.

Of all the major forest types in the Northeast, the white pine type is inherently the most hazardous.  Its leaf litter is highly inflammable because of the resin content.  The size and form of pine needles produce a duff with practically no matting but with a great deal of porosity, so that the run-off after rainfall is extremely rapid. … White pine in New England is confined generally to the poorer soil types — those composed chiefly of sand.  … Daily rainfalls of one-tenth of an inch or less do not keep the duff above the danger zone.  Even with greater amounts of precipitation, the duff moisture content does not remain above 10 per cent for long unless the rains occur at short intervals.

That’s an interesting point about how quickly pine needles dry, and makes sense compared to broad hardwood leaves which would slow the drainage of water.

There is a table that shows the distribution of forest fires between April 11 and July 10, 1927 by relative humidity.  The size of fires are surprising my modern standards:

11-15%  45 fires, 7,643 acres = 170 acres average
16-20% 140 fires, 4,059 acres =  29 acres average
21-25%  90 fires, 2,123 acres =  24 acres average
26-30%  94 fires, 1,395 acres =  15 acres average
(Fires drop off dramatically above 30%)

100+ acre fires are now quite rare, perhaps three in a bad fire season now.

113 years ago tomorrow…

Big Forest Fire in Massachusetts
Sandwich, Mass.
April 15 [1896] -- A forest fire started in Cataumet this morning.  It has raged
all day over a tract of land between that place and Sandwich fifteen miles long
and from one to four miles wide, and is not under control. ... Over 100 workmen
from Sandwich are fighting the fire, but they have made little headway. ...
[The fire] is moving in a northeasterly direction, and is within about two miles
of the town.  Backfires are being built all along the main thoroughfares between
Cataumet and Coutuit...
New York Times (archive)

It is interesting sometimes trying to interpret these old news clippings.  Best I can figure the fire was burning northeasterly through the area now largely occupied by the Massachusetts Military Reservation.  Cataumet is southwest, Coutuit southeast, and the “town” — the village named Sandwich — is northeast of MMR*.  It’s unclear to me whether the backfires were being lit to the south to secure the heel of the fire on a line between Cataumet and Coutuit, or was they represent anchor points for backires being lit along the east and west flanks.

A couple other observations:

It was moving northeasterly, so it was being driven by a southwest wind.  Southwest winds are the predominant wind direction in New England in springtime, and are the warmest, driest winds we experience.

Also interesting is the “100 workmen” — a fire today would be measured in thousands of firefighters for an incident that size in that location.  Brett Crosby’s outstanding Capecodfd.com site has a special section that provides a lot of insight into the history of firefighting on the Cape and the peculiar fire problem they face.

But back then you didn’t have automobiles to rapidly assemble and move workers, and you didn’t have the organizations of trained firefighters ready to be called out.  Hiring laborers was a standard practice to deal with fires, something that also appears in this article from Connecticut:

Forest Fire in Connecticut
Middletown, Conn.
Nov. 1. [1897] -- A forest fire is raging on South Mountains, adjacent to the
Air Line Railroad tracks... Four hundred acres of woodland have been burned
over.  A gang of forty Italians have been at work fighting the fire since
Sunday afternoon...
New York Times (archive)

While it would be amusing if “gang of Italians” was an old term for a Type II hand crew, the more likely explanation is Italians at the time were frequently employed as laborers and construction workers.

* Since MMR was founded in 1911, covering 34 sq. miles, the population of the Cape has grown over 700%.(1).  MMR will factor into later historical posts, as it’s the largest piece of primarily open space left on the Cape and over the years some major fires have started in the reservation.