BURLINGTON, Conn — It’s that time of the year. The trees have not yet leafed out and lots of sunshine is beating on the forest floor, drying out winter brush and starting to heat it up. But what does that mean for fire conditions? It means they are extreme.
Spring moving in like a lamb carrying end-of-the-week record heat.
“Just this year we started doing it. We bought a little backyard fire pit,” said Maureen Miele of Killingworth while on a stroll around Hammonasset State Park Tuesday.
But come nighttime, Miele plans to hold off on firing up her spring toy.
“I’ve been getting notices on my phone for the past two weeks about fire danger. As much as we would like to sit outside and do it again this week, we of course wouldn’t do that because it’s too dangerous,” she said.
Smokey the Bear on a board outside of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) headquarters warned of extreme fire danger Tuesday. The same day fire crews in Burlington scrambled to extinguish a brush fire started by what Chief Michael Boucher described as reckless burning.
“Even though we put out on social media no burning today and what the conditions are, we still have these incidents occur,” Boucher said. “Wind was pushing it to the north, so we were kind of concerned that it was going to get away, get to some houses. The guys worked hard and aggressively to contain it.”
Burlington Fire was forced to call in help from surrounding towns and spend more than an hour working to keep flames from spreading to surrounding homes.
Boucher added, “Ground’s dry. There’s low humidity and winds all of those together is the perfect recipe for what happened here. Cause of this fire was a neighbor burning recklessly under these conditions.”
A resident in Burlington burned brush which caused the fire, a scenario that should require a permit. In Madison, fire crews tell FOX61 they have seven open burn permits but residents are supposed to call dispatch and get the green light before lighting fires. State environmental officials said it’s best to hold off altogether in times of elevated fire danger.
“The type of permits that folks are issued for routine open burning outdoors can be restricted by the municipal officials or by the state here during these types of conditions,” said Frank Cervo of DEEP’s Division of Forestry.
Officials said extreme conditions will continue until Connecticut gets significant rain. Whether it’s a fire pit or simply tossing a cigarette—you are encouraged to be cautious during fire danger season.
“The trees have not yet leafed out so all the sunshine that’s starting to beat down goes directly to the forest floor, hits all those leaves, small branches, grasses, all that kind of stuff. Dries it right out and starts to heat it up,” Cervo said.
Samaia Hernandez is a reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at shernandez@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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