Wally Shaw and Sean Murphy fight a brush fire off Stow Road Tuesday. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Kerra Noyes and Oona Aldrich soak the ground behind a Stow Road home.
Residents who have been unable to burn brush because of rain and snow are running out of time. The state’s open burn season runs from January 1 to May 1, and exceptions to those dates most likely will not be made this year, according to town dispatchers.
Smokey Bear on Ayer Road reported that fire danger was very high this week. According to the state Department of Fire Services, April is usually the worst month for brush fires because the previous year’s dead grass, leaves, and wood are dangerous tinder without spring’s new growth. In addition, the wind is often stronger and more unpredictable during April than during other months.
With permission from the Harvard Fire Department, residents can burn—according to the state fire services website—brush, cane, driftwood, and forestry debris from other than commercial or industrial land-clearing operations; materials normally associated with the pursuit of agriculture, such as fruit tree prunings, dead raspberry stalks, blueberry patches for pruning purposes, and infected beehives for disease control; trees and brush resulting from agricultural land clearing; and fungus-infected elm wood, if no other acceptable means of disposal is available.
