There is a brush fire on the Middletown and Higganum town line and fire officials are calling it suspicious.
The fire is where River Road in Middletown meets Dublin Hill Road in Higganum and is near an Eversource substation. Eversource crews are on site and are standing by.
"We’re working with Middletown fire officials to better understand what may have caused the brush fire. We do know yesterday’s windy conditions brought a tree down on our distribution lines in an area near the brush fire. We also know that the fire did at one point begin to approach our transmission lines in the area, however, they were not damaged. We’ll continue to work with local officials and our team to better understand the sequence of events and potential cause of the fire," said officials at Eversource.
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Authorities said the fire is about five acres in size but did not say what may have started it. State Dept. of Energy and Environmental officials said they know that it was not caused by a lightning strike or downed power lines.
"And at the time of night, of one, two o'clock in the morning, there should have been no reason for this fire to start. So that's why we're calling us suspicious in nature. Anything's possible, we'd have to do some investigating," said DEEP Department of Forestry State Fire Control Officer Richard Schenk.
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According to fire officials, there are limited crews in the area to keep an eye on the fire.
This fire is separate from the brush fire that's burning in the area of River Road, Aircraft Road and Freeman Road. The Middlesex Regional Fire coordinator said at least 250 acres have burned so far in that fire. Fire officials said it could be close to 300 acres burned when all is said and done.
