Copyright 2006 Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
By BRADFORD L. MINER
Sunday Telegram (Massachusetts)
Firefighters were kept busy throughout the region yesterday battling out-of-control permit fires, brush fires, camper fires and a barn fire.
Michael L. Mahan, assistant fire chief in Charlton, said that department extinguished three fires yesterday that started with people burning brush.
The state’s open burning season ends Monday, Mr. Mahan noted, and a lot of people have waited until the last minute.
“I also encourage people to burn brush in late January or February, when there’s a half a foot of snow on the ground,” he said.
Assistant Chief Mahan said the day began as a Class 3 fire danger day, and he was expecting today to be a Class 4 fire day as a result of being both warmer and windier.
He said Charlton’s first call of the day came in at 10:11 a.m. for a permit fire at 28 Main St. that was “a little bigger than it should have been.”
“We were headed back to the station at 10:28 when we saw smoke over Masonic Home Road, which in fact was for a permit fire that had spread at 12 Osgood Road. We were there for about an hour and the fire burned 2-1/2 acres. We had four trucks and eight firefighters,” he said.
Clearing that scene, Chief Mahan said, firefighters were redirected to 92 Fitzgerald Road.
“We were low on water, so we ended up drafting water for our forestry tanker from a beaver pond,” he said, adding that that fire burned a half-acre and was put out by a crew of three.
He said embers from that fire ignited a second fire that came within about 5 feet of a shed at 90 Fitzgerald Road.
“My recommendation is that people put their brush pile together in November, cover it with a blue tarp, and get a permit to burn after Jan. 15 when the season starts and there’s snow on the ground,” he said.
The assistant chief said that if in fact today is declared a Class 4 fire danger day by the state, no permits will be issued.
He said in all, 739 households obtained permits to burn brush during the season that starts Jan. 15 and ends tomorrow.
“Of that number, 78, or more than 10 percent, called and asked to use those permits to burn today. I expect some may even try to burn illegally tomorrow,” he said, noting that many had waited until the last minute over the course of what had been a very dry spring.
West Brookfield Fire Chief Timothy R. Batchelor said his department responded yesterday morning to a fire that destroyed two travel trailers parked near a pond off Old Douglas Road.
Chief Batchelor said one of the trailers was occupied, but no one was at home when the fire started and the cause is unknown.
“The fire also burned about an acre of land as well,” he said.
The chief said the call came in at 11 a.m. and the department’s two engines, rescue truck and forestry truck were assisted by a mutual aid engine from Warren.
Later in the day, West Brookfield had calls for an acre-and-a-half brush fire on John Gilbert Road at High View Campground and a permit fire that had spread on Long Hill Road.
The Attawaugan Fire District and more than eight other fire companies spent six hours yesterday afternoon at a three-acre grass and brush fire on Breakneck Hill Road that also destroyed a small storage barn.
Chief Christopher Horne said the call came in at noon, and while a tanker relay was started to battle the blaze, a farm pond on the property was used as well.
Spencer Fire Chief Robert P. Parsons said his department was called out to 72 Paxton Road for a permit fire that spread to a pile of logs and was quickly extinguished.
The Ware Fire Department spent much of yesterday at a brush fire on Walker Road, but details were unavailable last night.
Also last night, the Barre Fire Department was calling for mutual aid assistance for a brush fire in the woods off Spring Hill Road.