Former Clintondale Fire Chief Rick Brooks was at the two forest fires on Hemlock Ridge in Plattekill, “at about a week and a half apart. One was a ground fire of about 3 acres and we were up there for about five hours on that one with Plattekill and then the big one was about 65 acres.” Brooks said at the larger fire there were heavy winds that spread the fire very quickly.

 

Brooks said at larger fires the department typically starts out in a defensive mode by putting in fire lines, “so you’re ahead of the fire by how far you should be from the fire depending on the wind. They tell you where to build the fire lines and that was what most of us were doing using leaf blowers and rakes taking away the fuel from the fire by about 8 to 10 feet wide. At the same time there are firefighters in the interior trying to knock down the flames.” He said  the fire was in a wooded area and no homes were in jeopardy, “and no evacuations were needed and there were only a couple of minor injuries.”

 

Brooks said some Plattekill firemen were sent up to fight the White House fire in the Catskills that eventually burned 630 acres.  

 

Highland Fire Chief Peter Miller said they assisted in fighting the 65 acre Hemlock Ridge fire in Plattekill.  

 

“The first night of the fire we did a lot of work on the hill with a couple of the teams to make fire lines and the next day we went back with a tanker for abut 8 hours,” he said, adding that firefighters were there from Thursday through Monday before it was knocked down.  

 

Miller pointed out that dryness was a factor in the spread of the fire.

 

“The humidity was low, things were dry and any amount of wind was a hazard to containing the fire; it kicked up a lot,” he said. “It was the same issues they had in Greenwood Lake. That was about 5,800 acres and the one up in Grahamsville was more than 600 acres.”

 

Milton Fire Chief Michael Troncillito said his company worked very well with Plattekill to put out the fire on Hemlock Ridge that eventually came over the hill into Marlboro. He said the rock ledges and overall steepness of the area was challenging.

 

“It did come into our district a little bit and we pretty much stopped it there and kept it at bay,” he said, estimating about 8 to 10 acres burned on the Marlboro side of the mountain. “It was all brush and no structures or vehicles.”

 

Troncillito said his company fought this fire for four days, resulting in 100% containment and forest rangers remained on site for many days after to keep an eye on hot spots.

 

“We then were requested by the county to offer assistance in the town of Denning to help with a major forest fire which consumed 630 acres, with our crew working 12 hour shifts. Smoke from this fire could be seen from miles away and multiple calls by homeowner concerned about where the smoke was coming from were answered by multiple agencies,” he said.

 

Troncillito also noted that, “From November 16 through 19 our UTV and a crew of three did 12 hour shifts at the Jennings Creek fire on the New York and New Jersey border. This fire consumed more than 5300 acres with one fatality that I know of [Parks and Recreation employee Daniel Vasquez],” he said. “While at all these fires our crews experienced more than fire fighting itself and were extremely humbled by the support and output of communities with supplies for them.”

 

Clintondale Fire Chief Phil Sabarese said when his department was dispatched to the Hemlock Ridge fire they were pulled out at 2 a.m., “because of the difficulty of working at night and due to the steep terrain.” They went back at 7 a.m. Friday morning and remained until dark and returned on Sunday morning with a crew of six firefighters. In addition the department responded with a tanker to the scene of a structure fire in town.

 

Sabarese said the wind, “really didn’t give up there at all and the dryness, of what they call the finer fuels that are the leaves, hugely contributed to the spread of he fire. It was very challenging.”

 

Sabarese said the protracted dryness in the area has lowered the water levels of local ponds that his department taps when needed. He added that the ponds have not fully recovered to their former levels; “It’s gonna take a significant amount of time to get to where they once were.”