Brush fire burns Armonk nature preserve

Brush fire burns Armonk nature preserve

08 May 2018

Published by https://www.lohud.com/


USA – NORTH CASTLE – Seven fire departments battled a brush fire that burned part of a nature preserve in Armonk on Monday.

An effort that included about 50 to 60 firefighters on the ground and a Westchester County police helicopter in the air lasted more than three hours as flames burned about two and a half acres of the Eugene and Agnes Meyer Preserve, Armonk Fire Chief Phil Goulet said.

Firefighters went back to the preserve on Tuesday afternoon to douse spots that flared up, and a state police helicopter crew helped dump water on the area, Goulet said.

The fire was first reported around 7 p.m. Monday, when someone on Oregon Hollow Road smelled smoke outside, Goulet said. Firefighters saw heavy smoke and ash in the sky, and found flames that appeared to have been burning for awhile in the preserve, a 247-acre parcel owned by the Nature Conservancy, he said.

The blaze was about a quarter-mile to half-mile deep in the woods and was a challenge, Goulet said. Firefighters could not get Gator utility vehicles or external water sources into the woods, he said, so they stretched hoses to reach the flames.

“The terrain was definitely very rough,” he said.

The Westchester County police helicopter crew helped firefighters find the flames, which were extinguished by 10:30 p.m. Monday, Goulet said. No one was injured, and the cause of the fire is under investigation, he said.

North Castle police and firefighters from Banksville, Bedford Hills, Mount Kisco, North White Plains, Pleasantville, Pound Ridge and Thornwood also responded, Goulet said.


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