Fire at Montezuma Wildlife Refuge

Monday, April 05, 2010

Oh no! The Montezuma Wildlife Refuge in Western New York has been on fire! This is from Syracuse.com:

Syracuse, NY - A wildfire, possibly touched off by a carelessly discarded cigarette, was burning through the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge west of here today.

Magee Fire Chief Roger Waugh said the fire erupted on the south side of the New York State Thruway about 4 a.m. and was burning south across the marshland.

Ash from the fire was reported to be dropping from the sky in Auburn but the fire was not hindering Thruway traffic, he said.

Waugh said about 600 acres had burned by about 11 a.m. but the fire was not posing a threat to any buildings or roadways.




How can they tell so soon that the fire probably started from a discarded cigarette, I wonder? And how could a fire start that way there? The place is marshy and it's been very soggy in Upstate New York-- the grasses seems far from bone-dry as they are in other states; if anything, Upstate is in need of a serious dehumidifier more than anything! My property is saturated with water.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear the damage is not very, very bad. This is not a good time for fires--- migrating birds are arriving and building nests.

1 remarks
Anonymous said...

I hope the waterfowl population is not affected. The population was doing extremely well. It would be very easy to light fire though, all the reeds that are standing are totally dry. The new reeds have barely become visible. But the only way I think a cigarette could have gotten to the reeds is a person that was inside the park not driving down I-90

11:28 PM  

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