High Brush Fire Danger

A stretch of sunny weather may be nice for everybody on April vacation, but not so good for firefighters. The lack of rainfall in the last couple of weeks brings high fire danger here in New England.

Firefighter Ryan Hoffman with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation gets a lot of exercise on his way to work.

In this season after snow melt before the leaves bloom out, more sunlight makes it to the forest floor, allowing fuels, like dried leaves, pine needles and sticks to dry out rapidly.

"Today was quite busy. We had a brush fire this morning at the Tyngsborough State Forest," said Hoffman. "That fire burns 12 acres last night and today. But it could have been much worse."

"This morning is not too bad, only because the humidity is still kind of high and the wind has not been that bad yet," said Chris Newton of Tyngsborough Fire. "Had it been later in the day when the humidity level is supposed to drop and the wind is supposed to pick up, then the fire could take off on us."

"The last couple weeks been very, very busy," said Hoffman. "We have had many brush fires, almost a daily thing."

What we really need to lower the fire danger is a steady day or two of rain, so we're hoping for the best with the front comes through here on Friday and Saturday.

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