Date: Fri 09-May-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

fire-Carol-Ann-Drive

Full Text:

with cuts: Large Brush Fire Threatens Carol Ann Drive

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Newtown firefighters responded May 1 to a fast-moving, wind-driven fire that

spread from a power company right-of-way toward Carol Ann Drive, nearly

reaching a line of homes along that street.

After an investigation, Fire Marshal George Lockwood said the blaze was set by

someone on the power company right-of-way for high-tension electricity

transmission lines. The person who set the fire probably reached the rugged

area by driving an all-terrain vehicle or lightweight motorcycle there, Mr

Lockwood said. The fire was set in two separate places in the heavy vegetation

known as buffalo grass, he said.

Mr Lockwood said fire officials will seek to find the person who set the

blaze.

The fire, which burned 13 acres of brush and woodlands, was the largest such

fire in Newtown in recent years, he said. No injuries were reported.

The fire marshal said that on inspecting the site of the blaze, he found 18

wild turkey eggs that had been destroyed by the fire.

All five local volunteer fire companies responded, including Newtown Hook and

Ladder, Botsford, Sandy Hook, Dodgingtown, and Hawleyville. The Stony Hill,

Bethel, and Southbury fire departments stood by at local firehouses during the

fire.

Two houses along Carol Ann Drive were immediately threatened by the

approaching fire, Mr Lockwood said. Several others were potentially threatened

by the fire.

Carol Ann Drive is one of several residential streets in a small road network

extending off Nunnawauk Road, near Garner Correctional Institution.

Corey Robinson, Newtown Hook and Ladder's acting fire chief, said firefighters

employed equipment from each of the town's fire companies in attacking the

blaze. Eleven fire trucks were dispatched to the fire and about 30

firefighters responded to the blaze, he said.

Some firemen were able to get access to the blaze via a power company

right-of-way off Turkey Hill Road, he said.

As firemen extinguished the burning forest floor, spits of flame leapt out

from the spaces between the rocks in a series of old stone walls.

Behind the houses on the south side of Carol Ann Drive, a stand of trees stood

amid the fire, with flames jutting out from branches and tree trunks.

The very dry conditions that exist in the spring before vegetation gains its

foliage allows such a fire to spread quickly, Acting Chief Robinson said.

Initially, firefighters responded to Clear View Drive, but learned that access

to the blaze from that point wasn't possible.

Firefighters then received calls from residents, alerting them to smoky

conditions and the spreading fire.

As firefighters got the blaze under control, a gentle rain began to fall which

then turned into a thunderstorm with downpours. Those rains were greeted by

cheers from firefighters who realized that nature was then on their side in

putting out the fire.

Firefighters returned to the scene at about 5:30 am May 2 to put out an area

that had rekindled.