Wind intensifies the start of Connecticut’s brush-fire season

It began as a brush fire during one of Connecticut’s most dangerous forest fire seasons fo and ended with two residents injured and displaced when the flames spread to their home.

When the call to Maiden Lane in Seymour came in Tuesday night, arriving units quickly found this wasn’t one of the town’s typical brush fires.

Several departments were called in to help put out the fire, which spread to the home, officials said.

Connecticut typically sees high forest fire danger in the spring from mid-March through May. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also issued a “red flag” warning for Southern New England several times in March.

So far in 2021, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has been made aware of 32 fires spanning roughly 50 acres in total, according to spokesman Will Healey.

Last year, he said, there were 626 reported fires that covered a total of nearly 340 acres. In 2019, there were 107 reported fires that spanned 86 acres.

“We had a wet year in 2019, so conditions didn’t promote a lot of fires that year,” Healey said about the massive jump in fires between the two years. “Conversely in 2020, conditions were very dry with the drought, promoting a much higher number of fires.”

Healey said DEEP’s data does not reflect the full picture, but only fires reported to the agency. The DEEP website indicates that in an average year, the state sees about 500 acres of woodland burned by forest fires. The state’s risk for forest fires is monitored daily by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Division of Forestry to keep an eye on Connecticut’s 1.8 million acres of forested land.

William Healey, a spokesman for DEEP, said the spring brush fire season is the most dangerous because of all the surface fuel on the forest floor, including leaves, dead tree branches and limbs.

He said despite all the snowfall the state saw this winter, the ground is still dry as it continues to recover from the drought last year, Healey said. “When you combine that with the high winds and the low humidity in the air, it is all a recipe for a very dangerous situation,” Healey said. “These fires can spread very rapidly.”

Roughly 30 acres burned in Southbury on March 12 during a quick-spreading brush fire, according to DEEP.

Southbury fire officials said crews battled the flames for more than seven hours over rough terrain. The flames did not threaten any homes or structures.

Dan Tomascak, Southbury’s fire marshal, said recent brush fires have been started by people dumping hot ashes and a recreational fire that got out of control from the wind.

“We tend to find them with camp fires,” he said Thursday.

Downed trees and limbs from major storms and tornadoes — particularly the “macroburst” of 2018 which caused widespread damage in the region — have also built up dead wood that can dry out and fuel brush fires, according to Tomascak. That also poses a challenge to crews who have to get to the fires to put them out.

Without leaves on the trees, Tomascak said, the sun beats down on that debris, drying it out despite the recent snow cover.

“So far it’s been a busy season,” he said, noting that while Southbury doesn’t typically see a lot of brush fires, it seemed like the state has seen a recent increase.

There’s also concern that collapsing trees killed by emerald ash borers and gypsy moths — both invasive species — could add to the fuel load in some areas, said Thomas Worthley, an associate extension professor at the University of Connecticut. However, “larger limbs and trunks do tend to retain moisture unless split apart, so a fire would need to be pretty hot for these to be more than just smoldering,” he said.

Kevin Catalano of the Monroe Volunteer Fire Department said this year’s brush fire season kicked off with some extra power because of the weather. Catalano’s department helped Southbury firefighters on

March 12, while also extinguishing two small brush fires in town in the past week.

“This year, those very heavy winds we experienced were further adding to the risk of brush fire season and contributed to the fast spread that occurred throughout the area,” Catalano said. “I think people also don’t realize how dry the ground actually is despite all the snowfall we had, and combined with the atmospheric and wind conditions, was causing small outdoor fires to spread rapidly.”

Assistant Fairfield Fire Chief Rodger Caisse said crews responded to two brush fires on March 12. The first fire was small, but it was found about 25 feet from a day care center and about two feet away from a garage. Although some smoking material were found discarded in the area, officials couldn’t say definitively that it was the cause of the fire. The cause was ruled undetermined.

Another call came in later that night after wind picked up some embers from hot coals in a backyard fire pit. Caisse said the embers ignited the deck, the house and two home next door. Caisse said throughout the annual brush fire seasons, the department primarily handles fires in open spaces that are quickly contained. Caisse said the best practice is for residents to avoid any outside burning any time the wind is forecast to pick up. He said a fire is deemed “wind driven” with gusts as low as 10 mph.

“It doesn’t take much,” Caisse said. “When the wind picks up, the speed at which a fire can spread intensifies.”

The state also participates in prescribed, or controlled burns, of forested areas to promote re-growth. Earlier this month, for example, Healey said a crew burned 122 acres in Pachaug State Forest to promote the regrowth of oak and pine trees. “It’s really a forest management practice to promote the overall health of the forest,” he said. “It also burns surface fuels on the ground and can reduce the severity of a forest fire were one to occur there.”

He said the burn in Pachaug was the first of four planned for this year. The remaining three will cover about 40 acres: three in Mohawk State Forest, 20 in Tunxis State Forest and 17 in Nehantic State Forest.

In 2020, he said fire crews across the state — not just DEEP — did prescribed burns on 32 acres. Healey said in 2019, 69.5 acres were burned statewide.