BERLIN, Conn. — It's been five days since firefighters have been fighting the Hawthorne fire on Lamentation Mountain in Berlin and on Saturday, the crew ran into some issues.
When Berlin Fire Chief John Massirio came to assist with the brush fire Saturday morning, he knew it was going to be a challenging day.
“You can kind of feel the dry air and the wind direction change,” Massirio said.
Between that and fallen leaves, they weren’t able to cover much ground.
“Every time the guys work to clear something, a half hour later, there's leaves on it again. They got to come back and backtrack and continue to work up again,” Massirio said.
Despite the issues, they are still working hard to fight the fires and keep it from spreading with the help of others.
“We've had both the National Guard helicopters and the main forestry helicopter flying throughout the day, dropping water, coordinating with the ground crews,” Massirio said.
Massirio said crews have been operating on the top and south end of the mountain, stretching about 1,000 feet of water hoses through the areas.
“All those operations in our hard place, everything's going smooth on that end. We just need the weather to start cooperating with us a little bit,” Massirio said.
Tom Trask, forest protection supervisor for DEEP, said they will be receiving more resources as well.
“We've called up New York, sending an IMT team for us to assist with operations. We have received the White Mountain National Forest and a source from the Green Mountain National Forest out of Vermont and New Hampshire,” Trask said.
About 120 to 130 acres of land have been burned so far and fire crews will continue working to put out the fires.
“Until we can be confident that the fire is contained and under control,” Massirio said.
There is a statewide ban on burning in state parks and other properties under the supervision of DEEP, including campfires and grilling.
Cayla Cade is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at ccade@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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