Almost 100 firefighters respond to brush fire near Hancock during heat advisory

HANCOCK — Almost 100 firefighters from three states responded to a large brush fire southeast of Hancock and near Interstate 70 during a heat advisory period Wednesday.

Maryland Department of Natural Resources forestry officials are investigating the cause of the fire, which was not known as of Wednesday night, department spokesman Gregg Bortz wrote in an email.

The fire appears to have started at a solar farm at 7900 Millstone Road, according to Washington County Emergency Services Director R. David Hays. Hays said there were burn marks in the grass by the solar panel system and a box that was part of the solar panel equipment was "burned up."

Abby Broedlin, vice president of asset management with Nautilus Solar Energy, said in a phone interview Thursday morning that the company is working with local fire officials to investigate and understand the cause of the fire.

Nautilus, based in Summit, N.J., leases the land, and owns and operates the solar field.

The company had a local partner on site investigating, Broedlin said Thursday morning.

Nautilus wants to "acknowledge" and send their "thanks and gratitude" to the local firefighters who worked in the heat to contain and extinguish the fire, Broedlin said.

Company officials are "super glad the community and the local area around the solar farm are safe," she said.

"Safety is always our top priority," Broedlin said.

The company has a remote monitoring system that tracks the solar field's equipment and local conditions, said Broedlin, whose team is responsible for monitoring systems. The system is designed to shut down when there is an issue and she said the system did shut down in this case.

Ninety-two personnel, mostly firefighters, responded with units from Washington, Allegany and Frederick counties in Maryland, Franklin and Fulton counties in Pennsylvania and Berkeley and Morgan counties in West Virginia, Hays said. Hancock Volunteer Fire Co. took the lead.

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State forestry officials also responded, and used a bulldozer to create a dirt perimeter to help contain the fire, Hays said.

Bortz said DNR had three wildland fire personnel, two trucks and the bulldozer helping to fight the fire, which burned acres of field and "early successional forest." Bortz said officials could better estimate on Thursday that the burned acreage was 4.3 acres, a little less than previously believed.

How did the heat affect firefighters?

The fire burned land that was heavily forested and had underbrush on rocky, hilly terrain, including a hillside, Hays said. Firetrucks and brush trucks could not access the area, so firefighters, with the help of all-terrain vehicles, stretched lines to the fire site.

It was "hard, manual work," Hays said.

No one was injured, but firefighters worked in extreme heat with fire in front of and above them in the forested area, Hays said.

Work cycles were shortened and more personnel brought in so firefighters wouldn't suffer heat exhaustion, he said.

The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for Wednesday afternoon for an area that included Washington County.

The heat index, which is how hot it feels outside, reached 100 degrees in the Hancock area and 103 degrees in the Hagerstown area between 2 and 4 p.m. Wednesday, said meteorologist Kevin Rodriguez with the Baltimore/Washington forecast office.

When was the brush fire first reported?

A Washington County 911 supervisor said a caller reported seeing a bunch of smoke in the area near solar panels at 2:22 p.m. Wednesday.

Hays said the brush fire was contained around 4:30 p.m. Contained means firefighters were confident the fire would no longer spread and moved in to finish extinguishing it.

"They did a good job," Hays said.

When was the brush fire brought under control?

The 911 supervisor said firefighters cleared the incident scene around 7 p.m. Wednesday.

"The fire is contained at this time. We will have staff onsite again (Thursday) checking the fire and mopping up where necessary," Bortz emailed shortly after 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.

No structures were damaged by the fire, Hays said.

A brush truck from a West Virginia unit had a mechanical failure with its emergency brake system and hit a utility pole. No one was hurt and there was no significant damage to the pole, Hays said.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: 92 firefighters from Tri-State battle brush fire during heat advisory