Officials warning residents about high risk for forest fires

Aug. 19—As the lengthy drought continues, Gov. Ned Lamont announced a Stage 3 alert level for Windham and New London Counties, a more serious level than Stage 2.

Windham County includes Windham, Ashford, Chaplin, Hampton, Scotland, Eastford and nine other towns. New London County includes Lebanon, Franklin and 22 other towns.

" Connecticut continues to experience the impacts of climate change with this exceptionally dry summer, and while the entire state is experiencing drought conditions, we are seeing the most severe of those conditions right now in the areas of New London and Windham counties," Lamont said in the press release.

The other six counties in the state remain at a stage 2 alert, the rating issued on July 14.

There are five alert levels, with stage 1 representing below normal conditions and stage 5 representing the most extreme conditions.

According to the release, the decision to move to stage 3 was based on an assessment of " indicator data" monitored by state and federal agencies, including precipitation, surface water, groundwater, reservoirs, soil moisture, vegetation and fire danger conditions.

Lamont's declaration was based on a recommendation from the Connecticut Interagency Drought Workshop, a group consisting of representatives from several state agencies.

The release indicated that a Stage 3 was last issued in Connecticut in October 2020.

" There are steps that residents and businesses can take to help reduce the impacts of this drought, including by voluntarily reducing water usage to only those things that are absolutely necessary and limiting the amount of water being used," Lamont said in the press release. "Those who depend on private wells, fire or irrigation ponds, and other highly localized water resources should be especially mindful of local conditions, most particularly in places where previous droughts have had a significant impact on water supplies."

Meanwhile, local emergency officials are warning residents about the high risk for forest fires. According to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection's daily forest fire danger report, the overall forest fire danger level for the state was " very high" on Thursday.

DEEP uses levels ranging from " low" to " extreme" The website indicated that North Windham was at the " extreme" level and South Windham was at the " high" level on Thursday.

Willimantic Deputy Fire Chief Ron Palmer Jr. said people should consult the fire danger rating before lighting recreational fires in their yards.

" With older construction, it can be a little risky to have a recreational fire," he said, noting that embers can fall on house siding or fencing.

Palmer said sometimes, people don't " contain the fire well."

He said Willimantic firefighters have not responded to any forest fires in Willimantic recently, but have responded to small mulch fires.

" People really need to be aware of properly disposing of smoking materials because a lot of times these small areas of mulch and even little grass fires are started by improperly discarded smoking materials," Palmer said. He said there needs to be steady rain for a day or two for there to be a significant impact on the forest fire alert level. Although there was a significant rainstorm in the area on Wednesday, the level was still downgraded to a Stage 3. Palmer said the Willimantic River is " significantly low," but Windham Water Works does a " great

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