By Ira Kantor
The Boston Herald
BOSTON — Fires blazing in the far north raised false alarms in the Bay State yesterday from Haverhill to Hyannis as residents besieged local police and fire departments with calls about smoke blowing in from more than 200 miles away.
The haze hanging over the Hub came from 43 active forest fires in northern Quebec, eight of which remain out of control. The smoke was sucked south down along coastal waters and then inland yesterday by a “back door cold front,” according to the National Weather Service.
The smoke coming in off the water prompted air quality alerts by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protections yesterday for eastern Massachusetts and the Cape. The pungent aroma should be breaking up today as the cold front shifts to the east, causing winds to head south, meteorologists said.
In Haverhill, people tied up the fire department’s phone lines with “a significant number” of calls saying the smell resembled everything from a “backyard fire” to “burning trash,” said firefighter Justin Borden. A fire truck was also “chasing (the smell) around for a little while,” Borden said.
Capt. Craig Farrenkopf said the Hyannis Fire Department had received frantic calls “since sunrise” but the smell began dissipating by early afternoon.
The smoke is also lingering over Maine, New Hampshire and northern Vermont. About 1,300 firefighters, including 42 from Maine and New Hampshire combined, continue to battle the fires, which were triggered by lightning last week and span nearly 265,000 acres across the Canadian province, said Melanie Morin, fire information officer for Quebec’s fire protection agency.
The smoke did not pose any visibility problems for planes flying out of Logan International Airport, said MassPort spokesman Matt Brelis.
Though Boston police and Boston fire each received a high volume of calls yesterday morning, there were no reports of any smoke-related incidents, spokesmen for both departments said.
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