By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
ACWORTH, N.H. — When it was all said and done, throughout 12-hours, more than 100 firefighters from 24 fire departments worked diligently to extinguish a roughly six-acre brush fire in Acworth on Tuesday. The cause is being investigated by the N.H. Forest Rangers and has yet to be determined.
While one unoccupied cabin was destroyed, Chief Gary Baber was thankful that nobody was injured and praised the collaborative effort of his fellow fire personnel that spanned across the states of New Hampshire and Vermont.
“It was a huge cooperative effort between the brotherhood of firefighters,” Baber said. “We brought towns as far away as Dublin over.”
He also said the local community responded, knowing that their firefighters needed to be kept fed and hydrated while they put out the blaze.
“Oh, the cooperation here from the town’s people was amazing,” Baber said. “They supplied us with enough food and drink to feed 300 people. The Red Cross was there doing their thing, and the town’s people got ahold of it on Facebook and the outpouring was unbelievable. Local stores donated sandwiches. Everyone was a huge help.”
The original tone for the fire came in around 3 a.m. on Tuesday, and Baber said crews wrapped up at 3 p.m., aside from being back at the scene Wednesday morning to spray down hot spots.
“It took us until about noon to contain it,” Baber said. “One of the hardest things about the fire was actually locating it. We got calls for a general location but the Sullivan County Sheriff brought their drone out.”
He was happy that there was rain in the forecast, saying that the dry conditions caused the fire to spread dangerously. However, crews were able to work tactically to contain the fire between two roads.
“We had two roads on both sides of it luckily, and we used those as a fire line,” Baber said.
He said if this hadn’t been done, they could be looking at a much worse scenario. Baber said if the fire had jumped the road, they would be looking at 1,000 acres burning.
“It was dry out there and the area we were in was all gravel road,” Baber said. “It’s all backland forest with cabins. We had to truck water up there using the narrow roads and we can only bring small trucks up. You can’t bring the super tankers up there.”
Baber explained that a lot of brush firefighting is done by hand, saying that they don’t try to put a lot of water on the fire, but instead cut fire lines to burn itself out. This is through the use of shovels, rakes and backpack blowers.
On Wednesday, Baber said that while the fire was out, they were being careful and vigilant to find any hot spots and tend to them.
“It’s out but we have the investigation going now,” Baber said. “Always with a brushfire, a couple days later you send crews back to check. Stuff burns in the ground and all of a sudden it could pop up somewhere.”
Baber said that he had spoken with the owner of the off-grid cabin that burned, and that they had come up from their home state of New York to view the scene.
The area had just come off a Red Flag Warning, and there were no burns allowed in the area at the time of the fire. While there has been a small amount of rain since, Baber said it is important to practice fire safety measures at all times.
“The biggest thing is that if you’re smoking don’t flick the cigarettes out the window of the car,” Baber said. “Put them out in the ash tray and make sure they’re out. Ninety percent of fires we find on the side of the road is because of smoking materials.”
A message was left with the Forest Rangers but not returned by deadline.
