Firefighters stop ‘red flag’ day fire in Andover just short of hangar, home

Chester’s Engine One draws water from a pond while relieving excess pressure back into the pond. All photos Shawn Cunningham. Click any photo to launch gallery.

By Shawn Cunningham
2015 © Telegraph Publishing, LLC

Fire companies, including Chester, were staying on the scene of what remained of an intense brush fire late Monday night that began in the late afternoon off Cobb Road in Andover and spread up the hill to a home and airplane hangar on East Hill Road.

According to firefighters on the scene, the fire was the result of a burn set on an area that was being logged.

Monday was a “red flag day,” which is issued by the National Weather Service and indicates that the combination of dry conditions, low dewpoints and wind creates conditions that make wildfires easy to start and difficult to extinguish.

It is not known at this time whether the Cobb Road fire was done under a burn permit or not.

The call came at around 3 p.m. Monday and, when firefighters arrived, the blaze had damaged the hangar and was threatening the house.  The house escaped damage, but the hangar’s plexiglass windows melted and the walls and interior fixtures were scorched by the fire.

The fire nearly reached the house before firefighters arrived and put it down.

By 6:30 p.m., the crews dousing hot spots and mopping up. The Telegraph will have more information on the fire as it becomes available.

In addition to the Chester Fire Department,  Ludlow responded along with Springfield, Peru, Weston, Rockingham, Proctorsville Reading, Bellows Falls, Westminster, West Weathersfield, Plymouth, Mt. Holly, Londonderry, Ascutney and, from New Hampshire, crews from Charlestown, Claremont, Walpole, Alstead and Chesterfield. Chester and Ludlow ambulances responded and stood by at the scene.

At about 9 p.m. a Walpole crew, covering the Chester station, was asked to stay overnight while Chester  remained on the fire scene.

The interior of the hangar shows the heat of the fire.

The fire spread up the hill stopping short of an airplane hangar on East Hill Road. The windows at the top of the wall melted and the interior was scorched.

Firefighters put out hotspots at the apparent point of the fire’s origin.