Fire from a prescribed burn on Joint Base Cape Cod got out of control yesterday and led to a regional brush-fire response.
More than a dozen local fire departments responded, including Sandwich, Bourne, Harwich, Onset, and Wareham. Fire officials activated a Plymouth County forest-fire task force, bringing brush-breaker trucks from off the Cape.
By late afternoon, area residents could see and smell the smoke for miles.
From the Wareham Fire Department, Captain Micky Bird and the crew of Breaker 401 “fought heavy fire conditions for several hours,” according to a department post on Facebook.
Public information about the fire came largely from individual departments posting online.
In Harwich, a forestry truck, Forestry 67, responded at about 3 p.m. as part of Forest Fire Control District 1, which covers Cape Cod and the Islands.
Harwich Fire Chief Dave LeBlanc responded in his role as mobilization coordinator for the district, the department said on Facebook. Crews from Harwich and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation “assisted with knock down and mop up of a large area that had jumped a road.”
The Harwich Fire Department said the Cape task force was released from the site around 8 p.m.
The fire burned about 150 acres instead of the 133 acres intended, the Massachusetts National Guard said by email in response to questions from CAI. Controlled burns on the base are done to manage habitat and prevent forest fires.
Yesterday’s fire moved outside of the designated area but remained within the confines of Joint Base Cape Cod, according to the Guard.
As of this morning, “all active fires have been knocked down” and the fire is contained, the Guard said.
