The combination of dry air and gusty winds will enhance the risk for fires across the state, including on the Vineyard, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency has announced.
The National Weather Service has issued a special weather statement warning of the increased threat.
“Local Fire Weather officials have advised that fine fuels, grasses and leaf litter, will be very receptive for ignition. In fact any fire across unshaded fine fuels can rapidly spread in these gusty conditions,” the statement said.
An overloaded electrical cord and power strip are believed to be the accidental cause of a blaze that destroyed a single family home in Oak Bluffs Tuesday morning and claimed the life of a dog, Oak Bluffs deputy fire chief Tony Ferreira said Thursday.
Volunteer firefighters from Oak Bluffs, Edgartown and the Martha’s Vineyard Airport battled a fire in frigid conditions for two and a half hours early Saturday evening in the airport business park. The call came in at 6:40 p.m., Edgartown police Sgt. Jonathan Searle confirmed on the scene.
Tisbury volunteer firefighters extinguished a small fire at a home on Lambert’s Cove Road Monday. The homeowner, Janice Blum, called the fire department when she discovered the fire just after noon.
“When we arrived the house was filled with black smoke,” fire chief John Schilling said. “We couldn’t see through the front door of the house.”
The state fire marshal’s office is investigating a fire that destroyed a home in the Dodger’s Hole section of Edgartown last Saturday.
Firefighters worked through the predawn hours to wrest control of the house on Mockingbird Drive that was fully engulfed in flames. The house was unoccupied at the time; the home is owned by Michael Torcia, who maintains full-time residence off-Island.
No injuries were reported, said Edgartown fire chief Peter Shemeth.
Chilmark firefighters quickly quelled a small fire at Blue Heron Farm early Tuesday morning. Chilmark fire chief David Norton said the call came in at 3:30 a.m. from an automatic fire alarm in the farmhouse. The fire was in the wall of the main house near a porch that had a gas grill on it. Firefighters had the fire out within a matter of minutes, Mr. Norton said. “Very small, very contained, extinguished quickly,” the fire chief said. He said the cause of the fire was the gas grill.