CUMBERLAND — Firefighting operations on three large brush fires in Allegany County were hindered by wind gusts and low humidity, according to the National Weather Service, ahead of a cold front that was expected to move through the area Sunday night.
Luis Rosa, a weather service meteorologist, said Sunday afternoon the temperature in Cumberland was 88 degrees with winds from the west gusting up to 21 miles per hour and low humidity.
“We are expecting the wind gusts until 7 p.m. Sunday in front of a cold front that will move through the area late tonight,” Rosa said from the agency’s Baltimore/Washington prediction center.
Units from three states battled three large brush fires in Allegany County Sunday afternoon, according to the Allegany County Joint Communications Center.
The first fire was reported just after 3 p.m. in the 13000 block of Williams Road near Mount Hermon Church Road, according to the Joint Communications Center spokesperson.
Minutes later, units were dispatched to Orleans Road near Mann Road in Little Orleans for a second brush fire, the spokesperson said.
A third brush fire was dispatched 10 minutes later in the area of Mount Savage Road near Cash Valley Road in Corriganville.
Firefighters from Cumberland Fire Department were dispatched to Dogwood Court for a suspected fourth brush fire, but when crews arrived they confirmed that the smoke the caller was seeing was the Williams Road fire, according to a fire department spokesperson.
Units from Allegany, Washington and Garrett counties, Fulton and Somerset counties in Pennsylvania and Mineral and Morgan counties in West Virginia responded to the incidents, according to the Joint Communications Center.
Ambulances from Allegany County Department of Emergency Services and Maryland State Police Aviation Command Trooper 5 aided firefighters on the scene.