Breakheart Reservation To Partially Reopen After Wildfire Closure

SAUGUS, MA — The Breakheart Reservation in Saugus will partially reopen on Friday after more than two weeks of closures due to wildfires, the Department of Conservation and Recreation announced on Thursday.

Though some trails will once again be accessible to the public, other areas of the reservation including the Ash Path and Ridge Trail will remain closed.

The DCR on Thursday asked that all visitors obey message boards, signage and cones marking areas that remain off limits.

In the meantime, crews are continuing work to remove damaged trees and otherwise clean up burned areas, the DCR said.

Fires first broke out in the Breakheart Reservation on Aug. 16. They then continued to burn in the days and weeks that followed, drawing fire crews from across the North Shore and Greater Boston regions in what was a busy August for Massachusetts wildfire activity.

Intermittently closing and reopening in the early days of the fire, the reservation closed completely on Aug. 19.

As Breakheart burned, similar large fires also scorched places including the Lynn Woods Reservation, at times bathing neighboring communities in smoke.

The National Guard eventually helped aid in the fire response, flying a series of helicopter water-drop routes over the Breakheart Reservation across two separate days last month.

The fires burned between 12 and 20 acres in their first 24 hours, according to initial estimates by DCR personnel. By last Tuesday, the burn area had grown to 79 acres. New estimates from the DCR on Thursday night show only minor fire growth in the days since, with the burn area now encompassing 80 acres.

Scattered rain in recent days, a DCR spokesperson told Patch, has helped slow the fires.

That rain, however, has hardly been enough to fully extinguish flames, which have bored deep into forest soil and root systems. Hotspots remain in various locations throughout five separate fire areas at Breakheart, according to the DCR. Personnel are continuing to monitor the area, as a result.

Moving forward, weather and fire experts have said it will take immense drought-busting rain to soak the area enough to lessen fire-prone conditions that have lingered into the month of September.

"What this rain doesn't do is that it does not saturate the ground," DCR Chief Fire Warden David Celino said last week. "It's not going to put out the ground fire or the heat that's in there. There is still a lot of heat here in Breakheart."

READ: Open Fires Banned Across MA State Parks Amid Extreme Drought