“This is the fire that kept me awake for weeks,” Dave Celino told a crowd gathered to about hear the 2024 Cape Ann Community Wildfire Protection Plan. “That’s the one that could have broken out beyond the containment lines. That’s the reason we’re here.”
Celino, chief forest fire warden for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, was speaking Thursday evening about the 2022 Woodland Acres fire in Rockport at a community open house to share information about wildfires that have recently plagued Cape Ann. In attendance at Gloucester City Hall were Fire Chiefs Mark Wonson of Rockport and Eric Smith of Gloucester, firefighters from around Cape Ann, and regional and state fire officials and stakeholders.
“This open house is part of our efforts to reduce wildfires on Cape Ann and to reduce the damage caused by wildfires that do occur,” Smith said before the meeting.
While local fire departments work to develop a plan, the public can play their part, said Ariana Porter of the Colorado-based company SWCA Environmental Consultants.
Residents and stakeholders are asked to take the anonymous public survey at https://bit.ly/3uIAaZY that contributes to the plan.
Questions in the survey include “Do you believe you would know how to safely evacuate in the event of a wildfire?” and “Do you think your community could do better to prepare for and prevent wildfires?”
“All of our neighbors are dealing with this,” Porter said. “Only you can prevent forest fires.”
Celino told those gathered that the DCR Bureau of Forest Fire Control — “We’re kind of a specialized mutual aid service for the towns and jurisdictions”— recorded 1,109 wildfires across Massachusetts in 2023 which burned 1,470 acres of land.
The fire that kept Celino awake was the Briarwood fire, also known as the Woodland Acres fire, which burned approximately 19 acres in Rockport from July 19 to Aug. 3, 2022. The Massachusetts National Guard was activated to help fight the blaze. More than 30 National Guard tactical firefighters helped local firefighters set up a containment area.
The fires at Woodland Acres/Briarwood and at Poles Hill, also known as Sunset Hill, in Gloucester burned dozens of acres over months in 2022, injuring firefighters and costing Cape Ann communities thousands of dollars in overtime and money needed to replace damaged fire hoses and equipment. Celino said the wildfires were due, in part, to the severe drought that hit the region in 2022.
Valerie Nelson, a member of the Cape Ann Climate Coalition, was in the audience. She said the threat of wildfires is exacerbated by the existence of invasive species of plants on Cape Ann — especially in the woods of Dogtown.
“Something has to be done,” she said. “It’s a fire hazard.”
Work on the 2024 Cape Ann Community Wildfire Protection began in June with several meetings leading up to Thursday’s open house. The plan is being financed by a $131,000 DCR grant which will pay for 100% of the contract costs for hiring SWCA Environmental Consultants to oversee the creation of the plan for Cape Ann’s four communities: Gloucester, Rockport, Manchester and Essex.
Over the next several weeks the draft plan will be finalized. It will include mitigation strategies, monitoring and evaluation, a list of community background and resources, planning and policy decisions, community “risk-hazard” assessment results, fire behavior modeling, post-fire response and restoration and evaluation of funding sources.
A public review of the draft plan will take place in April and May. The final plan is due in June.
The plan is being developed through a collaborative partnership of stakeholders including the communities of Essex, Gloucester, Manchester-by-the-Sea and Rockport. The effort includes land trusts and agencies, such as Essex County Greenbelt, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) and the DCR Bureau of Forest Fire Control.
The effort aims to heighten the safety of Cape Ann residents by mitigating and preventing potential wildfires.
Stephen Hagan can be reached at 978-675-2708 or at shagan@gloucestertimes.com.