By Alex Wood
The Middletown Press
BERLIN, Conn. — A large brush fire burning on Lamentation Mountain that resulted in the death of a firefighter now is believed to cover some 87 acres and to be 75 percent contained, as dry, windy conditions threaten to overwhelm a containment area first responders had established, Connecticut officials said Wednesday.
The Connecticut National Guard said it sent two helicopters — a Blackhawk and a Chinook — to help extinguish the blaze. The aircraft, both equipped with Bambi buckets, picked up water from Silver Lake and dropped it over the fire.
The helicopters were in use Wednesday afternoon, ferrying buckets holding 600 to 2,000 gallons of water to drop on the fire.
One firefighter died and three others were injured while fighting the fire Tuesday. No new injuries were reported Wednesday connected to the fires, and operations have been going “very well,” Lt. John Massiro of the Berlin Fire Department said in a news conference Wednesday evening. He said the National Guard is expected to continue to help with fire management until Friday assist unless larger fires need immediate attention elsewhere in the state.
Massiro said firefighters managed another brush fire that started near Hubbard Park Wednesday that “could have gone out of control pretty quickly,” but firefighters were able to extinguish it.
The cause of the blaze remains unclear.
“These areas are well traveled by hikers, UTVs, quads,” Massiro said. “These things all create sparks, heat and any of this can cause a forest fire. So, its just really important to use caution if you’re gonna be in the woods.”
Massiro said he expects investigators to find an answer to what caused the fires within the next few days.
Officials are asking the public to stay off of Silver Lake on boats until the fire is managed, and the boat ramp is closed during daylight hours.
Gov. Ned Lamont said the Connecticut National Guard planned to begin dropping water on the fire around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon .
“This will likely cause loud noise in the area,” Lamont said.
The announcement moved up the timeline for the aircraft, which originally were planned to dump water on the fire early Thursday. A forestry helicopter from Maine initially was expected to be used to fight the fire from the air early Wednesday afternoon. It was unclear whether that aircraft still was to be used.
Earlier, state officials had pressed the importance of the aerial firefighting effort because of the inaccessibility of the terrain that was burning.
Michael Kronick, the fire control officer in the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said Wednesday afternoon that the current estimate that the fire covers 87 acres was arrived at by use of GPS, revising earlier estimates as high as 125 acres developed through other methods.
He said the aerial water drops were intended to cool the fire to the point that firefighters could get on the ground and dig out hot spots to truly contain the blaze.
“I am pretty confident we will be able to keep it away from homes,” he said.
One home is only 50 to 75 feet from the fire, he said, but enough water has been spread over the area by methods that include garden sprinklers that it was unlikely to burn, and added that firetrucks also were available to wet down the area.
Kronick said the local fire chief reached out to his department as soon as firefighters arrived on the scene Monday evening.
It became a “crown fire” that evening, meaning the tops of trees were burning, not just ground-level vegetation, which he said is “not a common situation in the eastern United States .”
He said the earliest the fire could be 100 percent contained, without wind but with the current dry conditions, would be Sunday or Monday.
Crews battled the fire through the night into Wednesday and were able to contain it in a “box,” Kronick said.
“We are working to secure all the edges,” said Kronick, a former Westport fire chief. “With today’s weather forecast, we will be tested on those lines, and if the lines hold, we will be able to make great progress on this.”
He said fighting the brush fire mostly involves crews digging “hand lines.” To fight forest fires, crews dig and scrape away any vegetation that may act as fuel, creating a physical line in the dirt where the fire can’t burn any farther.
Bill Turner, the state’s emergency management director, said earlier that a forestry helicopter from Maine would be deployed Wednesday afternoon. The helicopter was delayed earlier in the day due to foggy conditions.
The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for the entire state Wednesday, warning that a combination of winds gusting up to 25 mph and dry conditions could allow for “rapid fire spread if ignition occurs.”
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection also said the risk of brush fire is “very high,” while the risk in Litchfield, Hartford, Tolland and Fairfield counties is “extreme.” The designations mean open burning of brush or other debris is essentially prohibited since local permits for burning are invalidated when the risk is “high” or above if burning is near woods or grassland.
“Really, today any spark is going to cause a fire,” said Kronick. “It is dry, it is windy. The fuels are receptive statewide.”
He indicated that the warning applies to every industry, even construction. If you’re doing something that sparks — “don’t do it today,” he added, including in the list fire pits and even using a gas grill outside.
“We’re in a condition where any spark is going to start a fire, and all fire starts small,” Kronick added.
At the cul-de-sac of Quincy Trail, which is right behind the fire, three DEEP personnel, two ambulances and fire crews were on stakeout at around 9:30 a.m.
The DEEP personnel said that they weren’t worried of any damage to the houses in the residential neighborhood due to the grass in people’s yards still being green.
They added that even though the forest was dry due to the lack of rain and weather conditions, the fire was contained within the forest and the only effect residents would likely have in this neighborhood was poorer air quality, which could affect those with medical conditions.
A mechanic at Berlin’s Lakeview Auto, across the street from the fire, said he “can smell it, when the wind is in the right direction,” but that business was otherwise unaffected.
In an update Tuesday night, Berlin firefighters said the fire’s spread mainly was to the north and south along ridge lines behind Sea Green Drive and in the south into Meriden, officials said. Officials said there had been no reported damage to homes.
During the fire operations on Tuesday, Meriden police said a Wethersfield firefighter was killed when a utility vehicle rolled over on him. Police identified the firefighter as Robert Sharkevich Sr ., a veteran of the Hartford Fire Department. Three other firefighters also sustained non-life-threatening injuries during the rollover, police said.
Jennifer Fournier-Dubree, a Berlin resident for more than 30 years, said she and her family were devastated, but thankful to see their community rallying behind the firefighters and first responders fighting the flames.
Fournier-Dubree, who lives in a neighboring road across from the Hawthorne fire, said on the first night of the blaze, her family saw it gradually grow while they waited from the bottom of the mountain.
“We hear about fires in California or other places in the distance, right?” Fournier-Dubree said. “But when it’s in your backyard, I think it really hits home as to what’s really happening in our world. It can happen in your own backyard.”
Fournier-Dubree said it has been difficult for her to shake the feeling of helplessness, especially after a Wethersfield firefighter lost his life while fighting it.
“It’s hard not being able to do anything (to help),” Fournier-Dubree said. “We were all listening to the scanners, and just wondering, like, OK, so what are they going to do?”
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