Francestown firefighters re-extinguished a fire that had been smoldering underground for 27 days on Friday. They were originally called to 1201 Russell Station Road for a ground fire on May 22, Chief Larry Kullgren said.
“It took us two days to extinguish the fire completely,” he said, and they thought it was over until the homeowner, Chad Mills, thought he smelled smoke last Thursday. The town’s forest fire warden David Kullgren investigated and confirmed the ground fire was smoldering, and the Fire Department dammed a small seasonal stream on the property and used a portable pump and hose to extinguish the fire again, starting at 6:45 a.m. on Friday, June 19, Kullgren said. They will continue to monitor the site.
“That doesn’t happen very often for that amount of time,” Kullgren said, although it’s possible for a fire to continue burning underground with the right fuels, such as roots and duff.
If there isn’t any measurable precipitation between now and Independence day, Kullgren said they can only assume there’ll be fires caused by fireworks on the holiday weekend. “Obviously, fireworks are dangerous themselves, but they also have to be mindful of the dry conditions,” he said. On Sunday morning, the Fire Department discovered a 20 by 30 foot fire in the back yard of a Bennington Road residence, caused by a firework that ignited the previous evening. Fireworks don’t have to malfunction in order to start a fire, he said. “Any and all are explosive projectiles, so they can often come down as embers. If the available fuels are there, they’ll ignite the ground cover,” he said.