Red flag warning makes for a busy day for fire crews
By Bianca Buono
@BBuonoABC6
Brush fires popped up in wooded areas all across our region Saturday, keeping firefighters busy. The weather is likely to blame. Southern New England was under a Red Flag Warning, meaning the dry and windy conditions can cause small fires to rapidly spread.
In Cranston, fire crews worked to put out what’s typically a routine brush fire, but Saturday that wasn’t the case.
"Generally we wouldn’t respond with this many trucks to a fire like this even though it covers a vast area,” said Deputy Chief Ken Rouleau of the Cranston Fire Department.
Because of blustering winds, a routine fire becomes equipment and labor intensive, so the Cranston Fire Department dispatched four trucks.
"Because the wind was kicking up around 15-20 miles per hour, the fire was getting up high in the trees and leaves were kicking up it was blowing pretty good towards the neighborhood,” Rouleau said.
Fire departments across Southern New England were on high alert after the National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for the entire area.
"It’s basically telling us that fire spread potential today is very great. It’s relatively low humidity so everything is dry, pre-green situation so all the vegetation over the winter is very dry and we have high winds,” said Captain Lou Lepere of the Smithfield Fire Department.
Fortunately, crews in Cranston were able to stop the fire before it reached the nearby homes. Deputy Chief Ken Rouleau said if it had spread, the scene would have been similar to that of Eaton Street in Providence two weeks ago when three multi-family homes were destroyed and 26 firefighters were sent to the hospital.
"Very combustible materials that are built into new construction so our guys did a good job stopping it,” Rouleau said.
Red Flag Warnings are placed on a scale of one to five. Saturday was a class four.
© WLNE-TV 2016
