Now 750 Acres Wide, Firefighters Continue To Battle Williamstown

A forest fire that started late in the afternoon on Friday near Henderson Rd. in Williamstown has grown to around 750 acres in total, according to the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services.

Although the fire is mostly under control at this point, firefighters from all over are continuing to battle one of the biggest forest fires in The Berkshires in decades.

Slater and Marjo had a chance to speak with Lanesborough Fire Chief and one of the county's fire coordinators, Charlie Durfee on Monday morning.

"It (the fire) goes from off of Henderson Rd. in Williamstown, up to Clarksburg State Forest and down into North Adams", said Durfee. "The Massachusetts Department of Fire Services is still looking into the cause of the fire, so it will be probably a few days on that. It's been a phenomenal effort between everybody to go up there and put this fire out. It's all handwork, you can get in there very little with 4-wheelers and side by sides, it's all handwork and walking up and down the mountain."

As far as getting water on the fire, Durfee explained how that happens in a situation like this.

"Yesterday the Massachusetts State Police did what they call a 'bambi bucket operation' where they go and dip into a port-a-tank and they go back up and drop it. Today, they got approval from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and the Governor as well to get a couple of black hawk helicopters to do the same thing and wet the whole thing down to help put the fire out because it's all handwork, you can't get trucks up there.

As far as the fire getting close to residential areas, Durfee said, "It was getting kinda close", but believed they have it contained as of yesterday.

Listen to the whole interview below.

Photos courtesy of Josh Mantello.

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