Crews remain busy fighting forest fires in Connecticut as drought conditions continue.
Rain is finally in sight for later this week, but fire officials warn we are not out of the woods yet.
It’s still extremely dry, the fire danger is high, and crews have been busy responding to more and more fires across the state.
On Monday morning, there were two new fires reported. One in Andover quickly spread from five to 26 acres.
Crews from Quebec and Idaho, who have been in the state helping handle brush fires here, responded to get a perimeter around that and get it contained. They were able to contain it to 26 acres Monday afternoon, according to town officials.
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Another fire in Torrington was reported on Monday morning.
“We also had another fire in Torrington, about a half acre. Supposedly, it burnt down one garage, or scorched the garage, pretty good. It's in a new housing development up there,” said Dean Fernandez, the incident commander for the Northeastern Forest Fire Protection Compact.
This weekend, crews were also busy fighting brush fires from Litchfield to Redding to Haddam.
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“We are in an unprecedented drought. It was very, very windy, very low humidity over the weekend, conducive to having wildfires. And our crew spent the weekend intervening on new wildfire starts,” said Melanie Morin, the public information officer for NFFPC.
On Saturday, the Haddam Volunteer Fire Company responded to a brush fire right along Saybrook Road, across from River Road.
A tree fell on power lines there. That’s what firefighters believe started it, when the power line came down. About one acre burned there.
Also over the weekend, there was a chicken coop fire and brush fire in Bloomfield, and a fire that sent smoke onto I-84 in Plainville.
Crews have been monitoring a total of 189 fires in Connecticut this season.
Their main message continues to be to stay on guard. Everything from lawnmowers to hot stove ashes to downed power lines have sparked these fires.
“Anything with a spark could potentially light a brush fire. We're seeing a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. We're seeing a bit of rain towards the end of the week, so hopefully it'll come in but from now until we have significant rain, again, it's really important to be very vigilant with any use of fire in or near the forest,” said Morin.
