by Chris Jones ·
Friday, May 29, 2026
A 2013 wildfire in Still River consumed more than 9 acres of grasslands at the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge. (File photo)
Saturday, May 2, happened to be Wildfire Community Preparedness Day, recognized annually in the U.S. and Canada on the first Saturday in May. In Harvard, it came and went with little fanfare, but that doesn’t mean wildfires can’t happen here; in fact, 13 years ago, the town had a frightening experience with one.
In November 2013, a spark from arcing power lines started a small fire in the grasslands of the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge off Still River Depot Road. A Harvard fire engine arrived on the scene, and as it was unrolling its hose, a 40-mph wind hit the fire and sent it racing up the hill toward Still River Road. Within 15 minutes, the fire scorched 9 acres of grassland but stopped moving when it bumped into the short, well-manicured properties of Wendell and Paul Willard.
Harvard fire and EMT Lt. Andrew Perry remembered the Oxbow wildfire, although at the time, he was serving with the Pepperell Fire Department and wasn’t on the scene: “When you have a structural fire, you save lives first, then you focus on saving the structure and belongings. With a brush or wildfire like Oxbow’s, it’s all about stopping the spread of the fire because it can move very fast over acres and acres, whereas a house fire isn’t going to do that. There is one way to put out a house fire–put water on it.”
Perry went on to explain the fire tetrahedron, the four essential elements needed to ignite and sustain a fire: heat, fuel, oxygen, and a chemical reaction. To end a fire, one of those elements must be removed from the situation. “With a house fire, water kills the heat, but in a brush fire, it can be hard to get water on it, so often, you dig fire lanes–6-foot-wide paths that stop the fire because dirt doesn’t burn. It’s about containment and confinement and less about extinguishing it,” he said. Essentially, when the fire runs out of fuel, then the fire ends.
Abed Kanaan of Still River Road burns brush annually, and although he lived in Harvard in 2013, he didn’t remember the Oxbow wildfire well. Regardless, when he burns brush, he always obtains a permit and burns between January 15 and May 1. He takes fire seriously: “When I burn brush, I make sure there is no debris around the fire and always keep 15 to 20 feet of open space, so the fire doesn’t transfer to anything. I also have a hose to quench it, and I make sure not to put too much wood on the fire so that it doesn’t get too big.” When he was asked if wildfires concern him, he said, “To be honest, I don’t think about wildfires much because my home is surrounded by open areas–plus I have faucets all around the house.”
Kanaan has made some decisions with his property of which Lt. Perry would approve. The first is that Kanaan maintains a short, well-manicured lawn that’s free of leaves and debris which can serve as a fire break for his home. Here are some other tips for residents pertaining to wildfires:
Clean your gutters. Embers from a wildfire can float in the wind, and if they land in a gutter with combustible material, this can start a fire on the roof.
Remove pine needles or dead leaves from the roof.
Move stacked firewood away from the house. Embers could ignite a stack of wood very quickly, and then the house could be next.
Remove dead and dried-out bushes and trees that are near the house.
Keep bark mulch 18 inches from the foundation of the house. Commercial buildings must follow this rule although residential ones don’t, but in very dry, hot heat, bark mulch can spontaneously combust. Every summer, fire departments respond to calls involving smoldering mulch.
And when asked about the current drought, which is, according to the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, currently at level 2—significant drought, Perry said, “We’re always concerned about drought and fire, but we’re also concerned about the water levels in Harvard’s fire ponds, which evaporate in the summer.” In addition, Perry said, if a drought gets severe, then trees drop leaves and that’s fuel for fire.
Perry also had advice for the dry summer months. First, lighting random campfires on conservation land is a bad idea because they’re hard to extinguish, and if they lead to fires, it can be hard for forestry fire trucks to access them. Second, if you’re someone who smokes cigarettes or anything else, take care with the disposal of those materials, especially in the summer.
Perry’s last piece of advice for Harvard residents didn’t apply to fire exclusively, but he couldn’t emphasize it enough. He wanted people to know that they should clearly mark their property with a house number sign. If there is an emergency of any kind at a resident’s home, and it’s dark and foggy out, emergency services rely on clearly marked properties. Any Harvard homeowner can request a green, reflective house number sign from signs.harvardfire.com, and these signs are free. “Those signs help police, ambulances, and even Amazon find you,” Perry said.