Thursday, 4:30 PM
With weather bone-dry, woodland fires erupting
By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff
Dozens of fires have erupted in woodlands across the state as the region undergoes a dry spell. Storm clouds would bring relief, but there aren't many on the horizon.
There were 44 forest fires across the state today, said David Celino, chief forest fire warden in the Bureau of Fire Control of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Celino said that was an unusually high number for this time of year and that the DCR had manned 21 fire towers, hoping to spot fires early so local fire departments could quickly extinguish them.
Celino said people who are out in the woods should be extremely careful with their campfires and their cigarette butts.
"Make sure that everything is absolutely, completely out cold," he said.
Alan Dunham, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the state is not yet technically undergoing a drought, which would require three months of below-normal precipitation.
But he did say that the weather had been "excessively dry."
In August, only two-thirds of an inch of rain fell in Boston, the second-lowest amount since records were first kept more than 100 years ago.
Dunham said high pressure aloft over the region has forced precipitation to the north and south.
He saw little rain ahead, perhaps some showers or rain sometime during the weekend or early next week.
Salem and Gloucester were among the area communities fighting fires today.
In Gloucester, firefighters battled a woodland blaze that has been smoldering since Sunday, said Fire Captain Tom LoGrande.
LoGrande said the fire in the western part of the city in the woods off Haskell Reservoir had covered more than four acres.
LoGrande said the fire keeps coming back because it gets into the decomposing vegetation on the forest floor. He said he expected firefighters would be battling the fire most, if not all, of the week.
"We get those thunderstorms, but they dump a lot of rain real quick and it kind of runs off ... What we need is a week or so of rain, and I don't think that's anywhere in the near future," he said.
In Salem, dispatcher Jeff Brown said firefighters had been trying to stop a blaze off Loring Avenue near the Pickman Park condominium complex in the southern part of town.
"Unless we can get some good rain, we'll probably be fighting this off and on for a while," he said.
Celino, the state forest fire warden, said that the list of towns that have seen woodland fires in recent days also includes North Reading, Plymouth, Quincy, Canton, Brockton, Montague, and Chicopee.
Most of the fires are small in size, he said. (The average was about two-thirds of an acre yesterday.) But when the fire goes into the soil, it can be a lot of work to put out.
The fires are "very labor-intensive because they burn deep in the ground," he said. "That material wants to burn."
