Christian Metzger – The Hour, Norwalk, Conn.
Jan. 27—HARTFORD — Last year was an unprecedented year for brush fires in Connecticut.
There were five times more fires reported than previous years, burning 416 acres, with September and October being the driest two-month period on record in 120 years. It was also the first time the state had to mobilize the national guard and call other states for assistance in 30 years.
By most accounts, it’s the sort of year that makes history. Yet according to officials from the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, what was once historical may soon become the new normal.
“It was certainly unprecedented by any measure,” said DEEP Deputy Commissioner Mason Trumble.
Despite the dry fall conditions, some towns across the state had experienced their wettest periods on record only months prior, DEEP officials said — highlighting a year of weather extremes. August had powerful rainstorms that washed out several regions across the state, stranding campers in Kettletown State Park, floods destroying homes, and hailstorms ruining farmers’ harvests.
Connecticut wasn’t the only state in the area that experienced such weather this year, with the neighboring states of New York and Massachusetts also having major wildfires last year as the dry conditions plagued New England.
The largest fire in the state was 127 acres, and compared to the thousand-acre burns in the neighboring states Trumble credited the firefighting teams for their approach at keeping things contained.
In spite of the department’s success in largely containing the fires last year, it was the intensity that department officials found worrying. Of the 433 fires reported last year, 220 of those occurred within a 31-day period which severely stressed municipal resources and required intervention from partner organizations in other states.
The Berlin fire alone cost upwards of $5 million to fight, with the cost of a 20-person crew from out of state being around $20,000 per day.
Trumble said that part of the reason they were able to quell so many fires early was because of the close collaboration between state and local resources, which allowed their fire crews to respond quickly and stop most of the fires before they got too large. In most instances, he said, state resources aren’t deployed until they’re called first, but they opted to be more proactive.
The state’s environment and climate, however, have been changing for the past several years in noticeable ways. Fisheries report fish native to around South Carolina are now becoming a common sight in Long Island Sound when previously they were never seen this far north, Trumble said.
Robert Fahey, associate professor in the University of Connecticut’s natural resources and environment department, noted the state has seen three intense droughts within the past nine years, when the previous worst drought had been back in the 1960s. That many droughts, he said, is not only a major fire risk but a stressor on the environment and can lead to more tree dieoff, which in turn adds more potential fuel for a burn.
Usually the region gets around seven to nine inches of rain in October, but there had only been 0.16 inches where the Berlin fire happened — lower than the previous record in 2013 at 0.32 inches.
“The July previous to this summer was the wettest in recorded history in the state of Connecticut,” said Thomas Trask, DEEP’s forest protection supervisor. “This period of time in which these fires occurred was the driest recorded history in the state of Connecticut, and that’s back to 1910 — they were even projecting further into the 1800s.”
James Fowler, a senior advisor on outreach and engagement for DEEP, said the state isn’t getting those steady rains.
“Within the last eight to 10 years or so, it does seem the frequency of the spigots is either on full bore or the spigot is shut off. It’s becoming more frequent,” Fowler said. “This year here, 2024, was probably the most extreme example of that, where we had 12 inches of rain in the Seymour, Oxford, Southbury area in August and then a month later, a month and a half later, we’re having one of our more stubborn wildfires in that same geographic region. Basically we see either pouring or there’s no rain.”
Rich Schenk, a DEEP fire control officer who has been with the office for more than 30 years, said the weather used to be more predictable, marked on the calendar between March and May. While some fires fell outside that, largely they’d only see the worst burns in that timeframe.
Today though, he said, fires are happening at all different points across the year; there is no longer a predictable season. This is especially true during the winters. During the last few years, there has only been light snowfall, leaving much of the ground exposed with dry leaves and high wind, creating a high fire risk that normally wouldn’t happen in the winter.
One of the pressing issues for DEEP with the rise in fires is a shortage of firefighters. Schenk added they’ve had to rely on more volunteers in recent years than ever before. Most of the volunteer departments also consist of retired firefighters who are 40 and over. Departments rarely see younger recruits right out of high school as they did previously.
“Our fire service overall, and even within our agency, is depleted from what it was 15, 20 years ago,” Schenk said.
Fahey said most of the current fires aren’t as severe since it’s mostly the shrubs and leaf litter impacted, without major spread into the canopies. If that were the case, things would likely be more severe.
DEEP officials also said that, at the height of the fires last year, they were lucky not to see any high winds which would have exacerbated the fires — which is one of the major contributing factors to the spread of the fires in California.
“We haven’t seen a lot of lost homes in Connecticut, but we did lose structures,” Schenk said. “We did lose homes during that fall fire season, maybe not as many as what you’re seeing in California, but give us an event with 80 mile an hour winds of dry conditions. We’re going to see a completely different situation,” said Schenk.
Fahey said invasive species that have been introduced into the state may also play a role. The emerald ash borer, for instance, is an invasive Asian beetle that has been killing off many of the state’s ash trees. Spongy moths have done severe damage defoliating massive areas of trees, and while they’ve been in the state for more than 100 years, there have been more severe outbreaks recently that contributed to large areas of tree dieoff.
“So that big pulse of dead trees could also sort of exacerbate things because those have become fuels,” Fahey said. “Those kind of large fuels would never dry out enough to burn in New England, but given how intense the droughts have been and the fire weather has been, that could be changing and then we could be seeing a shift towards more intense fires.”
He said the wooded areas are also becoming more developed, which increases the risk of a building burning down if a wildfire happens. He added there should be more fire education to better mitigate future dangers, as the risk of fire in New England is not thought about as much as it may be on the west coast.
DEEP officials said the changing patterns are likely the new reality for the foreseeable future. To counter the threat, they are working to keep building a strong coalition with neighboring states to mobilize during the worst wildfires.
They also encouraged people visit DEEP’s website where they have numerous resources on fire risks and preventive measures.
Officials said the public should be proactive by being conscious of the weather conditions when attempting to start fires or handle flammable materials around open fire hazards outdoors. People should also report suspected burns to authorities immediately before they have the chance to become major brushfires.
Though not considered intentional, the Berlin fire was determined to have started by a campfire that was improperly extinguished.
“We really do seek the best of the best throughout the country to meet with, to learn from, and to grow new generations of experts no matter what it is within the agency so we have a multi-generational, consistently growing workforce that can evolve, adapt, change, learn from the past, and learn from the future all at the same time,” said Trask.
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