Large brush fire burns through 9 acres in Gloucester

GLOUCESTER, Mass. — Neighbors could see the smoke for miles as a brush fire burned for most of the day Monday in Gloucester.

“I smelled it first, and I thought maybe there was somebody burning brush in the neighborhood, and I looked up and said that’s not a barbeque,” said Deanie French, who lives nearby.

“With the dry conditions, it makes me nervous to see Hamilton, Salem, Essex,” said Mattie Berryman, a neighbor.

There was a huge response from surrounding fire departments as crews worked to get it under control, but it wasn’t easy.

“The fire gets into the ground, literally with the root bases being dried out and the peat and all the granite that we have,” said Fire Chief Eric Smith. “Fire literally gets underground and can pop up where you don’t expect it.”

Chief Smith says it was tough to get water to the fire since it was in the wooded Poles Hill area, and the dry, windy conditions only made matters worse.

“With the wind, you never know what’s going to happen,” said Berryman.

Neighbors were nervous the flames could spread to their homes, but the fire chief says luckily no one had to be evacuated.

“The fire trucks were up on Wheeler Street right above us, so I didn’t know how fast it was moving. So my husband was like maybe we should hose down the roof, who knows, you can’t control the fire,” said Berryman.

Chief Smith says the fire is now under control, but about 9 acres burned, and he believes someone likely caused all this.

“There’s no ignition sources up in this area. There’s no utilities, there’s nothing, so the cause of this fire is people,” said Chief Smith.

Even though homes were not evacuated, the fire chief says some people may have left on their own if they were concerned about health issues or small children with all the smoke in this area.

Chief Smith says fire crews could be on scene for the next few days to make sure the fire doesn’t flare up again with the dry weather.

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