Brush Fire Strikes Middlesex Fells

Another day, another brush fire.

Melrose firefighters once again found themselves trudging through the woods, this time on late Friday afternoon to stamp out a brush fire in the Middlesex Fells Reservation off Goodyear Avenue.

The Melrose Fire Department first responded to the fire at approximately 5 p.m. before calling in a report of an extensive brush fire and requesting additional support.

The fire turned an area approximately 50 feet by 50 feet into a blackened pit; spotty flames ran in small areas, but mostly the fallen trees and branches smoldered with red-hot embers as smoke billowed through the woods.

Homes in the area did not face an imminent threat, as the fire burned approximately 100 yards from the end of Goodyear Avenue. Although getting water to this fire wasn't as difficult as getting to the brush fires off Dexter Road this week and at Mount Hood last week, firefighters did encounter roadblocks — literally.

A Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) fire access road led directly to the fire. However, Melrose firefighters had to use pneumatic cutters to open the locked gate at the start of the road, and then use a chainsaw to cut up trees that had fallen over the road before Engine 5 — a pickup truck with a tank-and-hose apparatus on the back — could drive up to the fire.