About 10 fire departments and dozens of firefighters battled a forest fire in Killington that spread through 30 acres of mountainous terrain and lasted for a week, finally dying down over the weekend.
Meanwhile, officials say abnormally dry conditions are increasing fire risks.
Firefighters crossed the Ottauquechee River and confronted steep terrain to control the blaze, which was sparked by a fire started without a permit on private property.
Lars Lund, a state forest fire supervisor who’s based in Rutland and helped fight the fire, said departments are still monitoring the area. He said at least six departments were on the scene every day that the fire was being actively suppressed. On Friday, firefighters traveled almost an hour from Poultney.
“Very challenging terrain,” Lund said. “It was consistently steep. The fire had a really strong uphill run, and it burned through most of the surface fuels and consumed them.”
Wildfires are often caused by backyard burns and unattended campfires. Officials say they’re seeing more incidences of fire for a longer period than usual this spring, likely a result of the prolonged dry period.
A report by the Eastern Area Coordination Center, which serves federal and state wildfire agencies, said Vermont’s fire season started early this spring, as snow melted quickly and debris became exposed and dry.
“In Vermont, almost all wildfire response is handled by local fire departments, most of which are volunteer,” said the report, published in early spring.
Resources, it said, including volunteer, state and federal, “do not appear to be spread thin; however, that may change if the drought continues to worsen.”
Last week, just south of the Vermont border, near Williamstown, Massachusetts, a separate blaze swept through more than 940 acres of forest, the largest wildfire in Massachusetts in two decades.
Lund said he compared notes with the fire supervisor in Massachusetts, who said larger fuels, such as logs, were sustaining the burn. The situation in Killington, which took place within the same week, was similar, but on a smaller scale.
“That was a little bit unusual, because those larger fuels were burning, and also ground fuels,” he said.
There are three types of wildfires, said Kathy Decker, the state’s forest protection program manager. Ground fires ignite soil and debris beneath the forest floor. Surface fires catch debris on the ground, and canopy fires ignite the crowns of trees.
In the Northeast, surface fires are most common in the spring as snow melts and uncovers debris leftover from the fall, which serves as fuel. Then, as trees leaf out and green plants on the forest floor reemerge, reports of wildfires typically decrease, and the season fades until fall.
Ground fires typically take place in autumn, when debris has collected and dried over the summer.
“As the greening up happens, the incidence usually goes down,” Decker said. “I think what we’re seeing is really dry conditions, and the wind conditions also, which push and move fire quicker.”
The blaze in Killington was both a surface fire and a ground fire, Lund said. Firefighters believed the blaze had been extinguished last week, but it popped up again on Wednesday from underground.
“It would burn in the ground fuels, and then the wind would pick up, and it would start burning through surface fuels,” Lund said. “That’s why the Killington fire has been kind of stop-and-go. We thought we had it, and it flared back up again.”
In spring, the wildfire season typically begins in southwestern Vermont, Lund said. This year, the first fire was reported on March 3 in Pownal, in the state’s southwestern corner.
State officials recently told VTDigger that this March was the second driest in 21 years. The dry conditions date back to last summer, when Killington had several other wildfires, including a ground fire that smoldered for several days on Deer’s Leap, not far from last week’s blaze.
Both Lund and Decker encouraged landowners and campers to be conscientious about burning this year. Most burns require a permit, which can be obtained from local fire wardens, who can help assess conditions. Fire wardens won’t issue permits on dry, windy days, for example, and may perform site inspections to ensure burns are taking place in appropriate locations.
“Plan your burn,” Lund said. “Can you drag a hose to your pile? Do you have equipment on site that can suppress the fire? Is there a barrier around your burn site? Is it too close to your house, or under any service lines or electrical lines?”
Burns should be attended at all times, he said.
While summer should lower the incidences of fire, Decker said, it’s impossible to predict how the upcoming season will look.
“We’re not out of the woods. It really depends on the amount of precipitation we get,” Decker said. “Erratic weather patterns also can fuel the fire.”
Clarification: An earlier version of this story was unclear on when burn permits are required.
