Local fire departments looking into Blue Hills brush fires

CFD’s Water Tanker 1 responded to the May 8 brush fire in the Blue Hills Reservation. (Photo courtesy of Dave Stewart/Boston Sparks Association)

Update: For the third time in as many weeks, Canton firefighters responded to a brush fire in the Blue Hills Reservation. The most recent fire broke out around noon on Saturday, May 14, off the Skyline Trail and spanned 12 acres. Fire Lt. Tom Norton said all Canton firefighters remained on scene until 7 p.m. before returning safely back to Canton.

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Officials from several area fire departments have launched a joint investigation after a second major brush fire broke out in the Blue Hills within a span of one week.

The most recent — and largest — of the fires occurred this past Sunday, May 8, in a portion of the park located in Milton. Firefighters from at least eight communities, including Canton, Milton, along with state forestry crews, worked throughout the afternoon and evening to contain the fire, which spread across nearly 50 acres of the state reservation.

Exactly one week earlier, on Sunday, May 1, a similar brush fire broke out around the same time of day — approximately 1 p.m. — and burned a total of 16 acres before being extinguished around seven hours later.

While wildfires are not uncommon during this time year — there were 41 across the state in the last week of April — Canton Fire Chief Charles Doody said the similarities between the two most recent Blue Hills fires have certainly raised some eyebrows among fire investigators.

“We are looking into these fires because it has now been two consecutive Sundays at roughly the same time in roughly the same area,” said Doody. “Both were in such a remote location — there is not ATV access, no hiking trails nearby — and so there are very few accidental reasons that a fire would occur in those areas.”

Doody said his department as well as the Milton and Quincy fire departments each sent an investigator into the Blue Hills on Monday and they were able to locate the point of origin but have not yet identified a cause for either fire. If they do ultimately determine that the fires were started intentionally, then Doody said each department would share that information with their respective communities and ask for the public’s help in identifying those who may be involved.

Whether intentional or not, however, the chief said it is a safe bet that the fire had a human origin. Across Massachusetts, in fact, roughly 98 percent of all wildfires are man-made, according to the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Some of those fires even have ecological benefits — a point explored in a recent blog post put out by the nonprofit Friends of the Blue Hills. On the other hand, Doody said unintentional fires often tax local resources and are labor-intensive for the responding fire crews. Either way, he stressed that any fire-related activity, whether firefighting operations or controlled burns, should always be left up to the experts.

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