Vermont issues burn ban following weekend fires
Published: 10-28-2024 8:00 PM |
BARNARD — After several brush fires across Vermont, including ones in the Upper Valley, that destroyed dozens of acres over the weekend, the state’s Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation issued a ban on debris burning on Monday.
In Barnard, a forest fire “believed to be related to the improper disposal of ashes from a wood stove” left one person injured and two small hunting camps destroyed on Morgan Hill Road on Sunday, according to a Vermont State Police a news release.
The fire burned an estimated 50 to 60 acres, Barnard Forest Fire Warden Scott Mills said.
On Sunday, the Barnard Volunteer Fire Dept. responded to the call between 5 and 6 in the morning and worked with firefighters from six other departments until after dark to suppress the fire.
“I’ve been on the department for 47 years and its the largest fire we’ve ever had,” he said.
The owner of one of the camps, Richard Keating, 66, suffered non life-threatening injuries from the fire, according to state police.
The Upper Valley was in “very high fire danger” over the weekend, according to Vermont Forest Parks and Recreation and New Hampshire Forest and Lands.
Except for a couple rainy days in early September, one or more areas in Vermont have been in at least “moderate” fire danger for the past two months, according to Vermont State Forest Fire Supervisor Dan Dillner.
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This is not unique to the Upper Valley, fire conditions across New England have been severe.
In Millbury, Mass., a woman died in an outdoor fire at an encampment on Saturday night and crews on Sunday were still fighting a large overnight brush fire in Salem, Mass., as dry and windy conditions have raised the risk of wildfires in southern New England, The Associated Press reported.
Vermont’s burn ban is in effect through 3 p.m. on Nov. 11, unless conditions improve.
“We don’t have control over wind that takes down a power line and starts a fire, but we can prevent human caused fires,” Dillner said.
Since many fire departments are staffed by volunteers, and neighboring towns often provide mutual aid to each other, its important to take precautions to not stretch resources thin, Dillner said.
The number of fires this fall “seems elevated,” he said, but he does not have all of the reports yet to crunch the numbers.
“It is unusual to have so many days of such high fire danger,” he said.
“We haven’t had a good rain for quite a while,” said Mills, “plus all the leaves on the ground create a quick litter fire.”
Mills indicated the wind made the fire harder to control.
A light snow on Sunday night was “a blessing” and as of Monday morning, Mills said he hadn’t seen any more smoke at the Barnard fire.
Barnard was not the only Upper Valley town battling brush and forest fires over the weekend.
In Grafton and Canaan, fire departments responded to a call on Sunday afternoon from a homeowner whose brush burn got out of hand.
The fire was put out within a couple hours, but not before about 100-square-feet of forest burned, said Grafton Fire Chief Roger Prentice.
The South Royalton Fire Department posted on Facebook that it responded to two fires from neighboring towns over the weekend, including the Barnard fire.
“Fire pits are still not allowed. One ember can catch the woods on fire and travel faster than you can chase it. Thank you everyone for being patient and waiting to burn your fall cleanup,” the post says.
West Weathersfield Fire Department also posted on Facebook that it responded to a fire in Ludlow, Vt., that took both Saturday and Sunday to put out.
New England naturally has an autumn fire season.
Since there was no drought in 2023, the level of drought the region has right now is “not abnormal at all,” said meteorologist Gabriel Langbauer, of the National Weather Service in Burlington.
“What we expect to see with climate change is more periods of drought and more periods of flooding,” said Langbauer. “The nice thing about where we live here in the Northeast, is that it doesn’t take a whole lot of precipitation to pull out of these things.”
Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242. Valley News Staff Writer Christina Dolan contributed to this report.