Dry conditions and a resident trying to burn debris from the 2021 tornado caused a small brush fire to break out on Feb. 11 on Jackson Road, near the border of Mantua and Harrison townships.
Departments from the two towns brought the blaze under control with the help of a brush truck from the East Greenwich Fire Department. There were no injuries.
“(Fire) Chief (Brian) Hauss received a phone call reporting a large brush fire behind Wellacrest Farms on Jefferson Road,” said Mantua firefighter Victor Torino. “Squad 2211 responded and found a resident that was burning piles of downed trees and brush attempting to clean up from the tornado in 2021.
“The property was found to actually be in Harrison Township,” he added. “The resident did have a permit to burn from the New Jersey State Forestry Service. However, the dry conditions and winds caused the fire to spread.”
According to Torino, the Harrison resident assisted firefighters by using his own tractor to help break apart piles of wood and shrub, so they were properly extinguished. Some hard-to-reach parts of the area were accessed by a special vehicle.
“Only about two acres total burned, not threatening any structures,” Torino noted. “However, a brush truck from the East Greenwich Fire Department was requested to access areas a regular fire truck could not access.
“Crews worked for a little over an hour … hitting hot spots to ensure the fire would not spread any further,” he said, noting there was no damaged equipment.
Harrison’s fire department has yet to comment on the fire, but a Facebook post from Mantua shared by East Greenwich noted the latter’s fire department was “supporting our neighbors this morning.”
The tornado of two nearly years ago was caused when Hurricane Ida blew through several towns in the area, including Mantua and Harrison. While a number of homes were severely damaged, the tornado also took its toll on the area’s forests, destroying trees and shrubbery. No one was injured, but the cleanup took several days, and some residents suffered power outages.
