Area Firefighters Continue Response To Breakheart Reservation Fires

SAUGUS, MA — It rained on Monday. But the roughly .25 inches that fell on communities north of Boston was hardly enough to douse still burning fires in the Breakheart Reservation in Saugus and Wakefield.

That meant crews were back at the reservation on Tuesday, with Reading and Burlington fire personnel each providing station coverage in Saugus according to messages on Twitter on Tuesday morning.

The response has been augmented by state Department of Conservation and Recreation personnel joining local departments rotating in and out of positions on the fire line alongside Saugus firefighters.

The fires, which ignited last Tuesday, are now a week old, having burned dozens of acres in the Breakheart Reservation alongside similar large fires in Lynn, Georgetown, Rockport, Natick and Marlborough.

The DCR on Sunday extended the Breakheart Reservation’s closure to the public through Wednesday as helicopter crews from the National Guard conducted water drops on individual pockets of fire.

In the meantime, state and local officials have continued to repeat warnings about severe drought conditions that linger across much of Eastern Massachusetts even after some rain this week.

Locally, scattered showers and thunderstorms are forecast to develop across the region on Tuesday, potentially sweeping through area communities in the late afternoon and early evening.

READ: Large Massachusetts Brush Fires Challenge Firefighters Amid Drought