Firefighters from three Island towns moved quickly Sunday to extinguish a fast-moving brush fire in a rural area near the Edgartown Great Pond, stopping the blaze not far from two homes in the Boldwater subdivision. The fire capped a busy day for Edgartown firemen, who also put out a transformer fire off the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road and responded to several false alarms.
A call came through the communications center around 1 p.m. of a transformer fire off Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road near Third street. A fuse reportedly exploded and ignited some leaves underneath the transformer, which spread to some nearby brush.
Firefighters put out the fire before it spread to several nearby houses. The fire caused a power outage that lasted about 30 minutes.
Later that day, around 3 p.m., a resident of Boldwater called 911 to report smoke and fire in a wooded area near his home. West Tisbury and Edgartown fire departments responded, with more than 50 volunteer firefighters. The weather was unseasonably warm with temperatures in the 80s.
Edgartown sent all fire trucks to the remote location, while West Tisbury sent two tankers and a brush breaker. Oak Bluffs also responded with firefighters and vehicles.
Edgartown fire chief Peter Shemeth said the fire was dangerously close to two residential homes when firefighters arrived. The chief said the men set up a line along the edge of a lawn to stop the fire; they also wet down trees and vegetation to keep the fire from crossing the road.
Meanwhile, the brush breaker was busy putting out flare-ups, which negated the need for firefighters to run long hoses inside the perimeter of the fire. The strategy was effective, and firefighters stopped the blaze before it reached the homes. The fire covered about three acres of brush, and in the end no homes were damaged and nobody was hurt.
The chief praised the work of responders.
“This was a textbook example of a mutual aid response, every firefighter and every vehicle played a key role in putting out that fire,” he said, adding: “This fire was about as far on the south side of the Island as you can get; it was not easy to get to. This was a great stop . . . the men deserve a lot of credit.”
He said investigators concluded the fire started in an electrical box on private property.
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