It’s the annoying party crasher who refuses to leave.

Firefighters can knock down a major house fire in a few hours. But a far-less-spectacular brush fire has the annoying tendency to stick around for a long time. Days. Even weeks. After the surface burning has largely been doused, a brush fire likes to hide underground, rearing its ugly burning or smoking head from time to time, here and there.

The summer, and now fall, of 2020 has been hot and dry, prime breeding ground for brush fires. The threat increases when the wind kicks up, as was the case early this week.

Early on Sunday afternoon, the Somerset Fire Department responded to a brush fire at the heavily wooded and protected town reservoir area in the north end. Firefighters quickly controlled the fire, which burned west of the reservoir up to the Rustic Acres neighborhood, but they had their hoses spraying past sundown. The hoses were still needed on Monday. Fire Chief Jamison Barros didn’t need the hoses on Tuesday, but the Somerset FD was still on site with water cans and rakes.

Firefighters would find a small burning or smoking areas, dig, douse it, only to spot another. It was less of the same on Wednesday, but Barros was not ready to call it a closed case. He planned to inspect the approximately five-acre burn site again on Thursday, and to keep doing so until he’s convinced the fire, which was within about 150 yards of a Lynch Avenue house, is history.

“The fire burns deep, below the ground cover. Leaves. Peat. Roots. It travels underground,” Barros said. ”It’s challenging. But it’s been like that all over Bristol County.”

Fall River Fire Chief John Lynch can attest to that.

In July and into August, his department fought a brush fire for several weeks. It burned in the Reservation, the densely wooded area in the city’s northwest end.

“Our [brush fire] concerns are remote areas,” Lynch said. “By the time you get to it, it can be a long campaign. It’s manpower intensive.”

Fall River’s summer brush fire was a challenge from the start. Smoke could be seen in the air, but actually finding the fire required extensive effort. Once a remote fire is located, water tankers are needed. Sometimes air drops are required, though Fall River avoided that this summer.

With the Fall River fire working below ground, the state’s district fire warden brought in a bulldozer to expose and help defeat the stubborn enemy, Lynch said.

Barros didn’t have to resort to bulldozers or air drops. His department was able to locate the Somerset fire in fairly short order and subdue it before it could grow into a serious threat. A north-south walking trail served as a fire block, and in several locations old stone walls marked the end of the fire’s reach.

Burn marks on trees extended a few feet high.

The cause of the fire is undetermined, Barros said. He said the Somerset FD found no evidence of fire accelerants, no rings of rocks which might mark a fire pit or camp fire. He said it may have been caused by that legendary fire starter, the discarded cigarette butt.

Drought conditions combined with low humidity and significant wind prompt the National Weather Service to declare red flag days for fire threat. Sunday was such a day.

On Sunday, Dighton assisted with fighting the brush fire while Swansea provided coverage for the Somerset station.

He noted that Rehoboth this week has also been dealing with a brush fire.

The Somerset Police Department is urging residents to be extra careful about discarding cigarette butts and having any kind of outdoor fires during red flag days.

Email Greg Sullivan at gsullivan@heraldnews.com. Follow him @GregSullivanHN.

 

Signs of the Somerset Reservoir brush fire. Likely still underground burning. Day 4. pic.twitter.com/N1AXlJX5nW

— Greg Sullivan (@GregSullivanHN) September 23, 2020//
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