Photo by Jason Edwards For The Valley Indy
A Seymour ladder truck at the scene of a fire Tuesday night.
SEYMOUR — A brush fire in Seymour that damaged a 101-year-old house at 26 Maiden Lane Tuesday night was caused by a discarded cigarette, Fire Marshal Timm Willis said.
Two residents were displaced. They suffered minor burns but did not require hospitalization. One of the residents had been smoking, which triggered the brush fire in the rear yard. The fire was an accident, Willis said Wednesday morning.
The fire was reported about 6:45 p.m. at the single-family home.
The first units on scene saw heavy, tall flames surrounding an exterior, 120-gallon propane tank behind the house. The backside of the house was also on fire, as was a steep wooded hill behind the house.
The tank was heating up, triggering the tank’s safety release valve to emit propane. That caused flames of about 20 feet into the air to shoot from the tank.
“It creates a torch, essentially, of about 20 to 25 feet into the air. But that’s typically a good sign, because we don’t want to see a tank that’s heavily involved that doesn’t have that going, because that means it’s not releasing pressure and eventually it is going to release a lot of pressure at once, very violently,” Willis said.
Contributed Photo
This photo shows heavy fire around an unseen propane tank on Maiden Lane in Seymour.
Cooling the tank was a priority, he said.
“Subsequently other crews were able to enter the house and extinguish the fire there,” Willis said.
Flames made it all the way to the attic, causing heavy damage. The Red Cross was notified but the residents were able to secure temporary lodging at a hotel, according to fire officials.
About an acre of woods behind the house burned. The flames came within about 50 feet of a second home, Willis said.
About 60 to 80 firefighters responded to the scene, using the parking lot at Villa Bianca, a wedding banquet at 312 Roosevelt Drive (Route 34), and the parking lot of a business next door as staging grounds.
In addition to companies from Seymour, firefighters from Beacon Falls, Derby, and Oxford responded to the scene. Units were on scene until about midnight.
Willis said the danger of forest fires has been high all week. Conditions have been perfect for fast-spreading brush fires, particularly with the presence of low humidity and dry leaves everywhere.
On Saturday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a red flag warning Saturday across much of southern New England. The designation noted that strong winds and low relative humidity allows fires to spread quickly once started.
Residents were urged to be careful, and to not start fires of any kind outdoors.
As of Wednesday, the fire danger level was moderate in Connecticut, according to this state website.
Derby’s Brush Fire
Seymour’s fire happened a day after a brush fire in Derby burned about five acres.
The Monday brush fire in Derby was reported about 4:30 p.m. in the area of 581 Roosevelt Avenue (Route 34), and spread up a wooded hill toward the Kellogg Environmental Center at 500 Hawthorne Avenue. About 60 firefighters responded.
Click here for a Valley Indy story on that fire.
Photo by Jason Edwards for The Valley Indy
A firefighter puts water on a large brush fire in Derby Monday.
On Wednesday morning, Derby Fire Marshal Phil Hawks said it was tough to say for sure what caused the brush fire.
He noted Roosevelt Drive (state Route 34) is a heavily-traveled road.
“If you ever walk down that road, there is so much debris,” Hawks said. “Hundreds of cigarettes. Could it have been a cigarette, could it have been a match? There’s just so much, it’s hard to determine exactly what caused the fire the other day.”
Hawks noted Monday was windy, which quickly carried the fire up the hill.
No injuries were reported in that blaze.
Multiple Brush Fires In Shelton
Fire Marshal James Tortora sent a list Monday showing Shelton firefighters responded to ten brush fires between March 9 and March 14, including a large blaze on Old Stratford Road about 7:15 p.m. on March 14.
Tortora noted the conditions have been ripe for such fires.
“A lot of these were mulch fires, outside a home or business,” Tortora said. “In the past several weeks we’ve had our share.”
Firebug?
Tortora and Willis all said they do not think the recent brush fires are the result of a single person, nor do they appear to be connected.
Each fire marshal interviewed for this story mentioned the dry air, wind and leaf cover as factors in the recent fires, backing up the elevated fire danger issued by state environmental officials last week.
The fire marshals are acutely aware that in 2012, 2013, and again in 2018, police and fire officials in the region were on the lookout for such an arsonist.
Fires were being set in Shelton and Milford, and along Route 34 from Orange to Monroe.
No one was ever charged in connection to those incidents.
