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Governor declares state of emergency due to fire risk

Harry October 26, 2024

As the Connecticut National Guard continued to release water to the Hawthorne Fire in Berlin on Friday, Gov. Ned Lamont declared a state of emergency due to dry weather conditions and the threat of additional fires.

He also announced that the state will receive federal funding to help cover the ongoing costs of responding to the fire. According to Lamont, this is the first time Connecticut has been approved for federal fire response funds.

“This is one of the most significant brush fires Connecticut has experienced in recent memory,” Lamont said in a statement.

The state of emergency will allow local and state officials to “monitor and contain potential fires” and tools to respond to additional fires. A brush fire that started Monday night in Berlin in central Connecticut has spread to part of Meriden. Authorities say that dry conditions, as well as the lack of rain in recent weeks, caused the fire to grow. About 50 personnel responded to the scene Friday, including assistance from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine and Massachusetts, according to state environmental officials.

The state estimates responding to the Lamentation Mountain fire will exceed $330,000, triggering eligibility for up to 75% reimbursement of municipal and state expenses from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s grant program.

“I thank FEMA and the Biden-Harris administration for their quick response to my request and their ongoing partnership with Connecticut to ensure we can support the resources we need to keep this region safe,” Lamont said.

Bill Turner, state emergency management director, was grateful for the effort.

“We know this is an expensive operation, and this will be really helpful in allowing us to continue to request additional mutual aid resources to stabilize the event,” Turner said. “So we thank the governor’s office, FEMA Region One, for helping facilitate this request, and the U.S. Forest Service, which must approve this request.”

Response disrupted by drones and civilians

Crews fighting the fire faced some challenges, as officials reported that hikers, drones and ATVs near the fire were disrupting efforts.

“We had to ground our plane many times due to the planes in our flight area. Therefore, there is a temporary flight restriction,” said Berlin fire chief John Massirio. “We want pilots to respect that and drone operators to respect that.” The fire has been secured on the north side of the ridgeline but there are fears the fire will spread to the south end.

“Whenever there is an attack and we have to land a plane, the take-off time is 30 to 40 minutes. So, you know, we have four or five attacks, we’re losing over two hours just to be able to pour water on the ground,” Massiro said. “That hinders our efforts to effectively contain this in a reasonable amount of time.”

(From left) Brianna DeKorte of Middletown, Samantha Clark of Bristol and Dustin Holroyd of Bristol watch as a helicopter takes water from Silver Lake to drop on the fire at Lamentation Mountain. “You see this in the news coming out of California and things like that, literally not in your own backyard,” DeKorte said. Meriden, Connecticut, October 25, 2004. Credit: Mark Mirko | Connecticut Public

Smaller fires across CT

Officials with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said some air supplies may need to be diverted away from Berlin to fight other fires in the state, including the blaze in Oxford, where falling leaves and dry conditions have created more opportunities for brush fires to spread. .

There were several other fires in Connecticut on Friday morning that did not exceed 10 acres in size, but the fire in Oxford was moderately spread, forest ranger Tom Trask said.

“We are also working with local resources in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, to meet our need for more devices such as hoses, nozzles and pumps. All resources come together appropriately,” Trask said. “We are doing our part to get this fire under control,” he said.

For now, federal funding will be directed only to the Berlin fire response, according to Turner, the emergency management director.

“We were notified late last night that (FEMA funding) had been approved specifically for this incident for Connecticut,” Turner said. “We know there are other wildfires going on, but this confirmation was specific to the Hawthorne fire.”

High fire risk may remain

According to Connecticut Public meteorologist Garett Argianas, the lack of significant precipitation in the state following torrential rains in August is contributing to the increased fire danger.

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