PRINCETON, Mass. - It's been a very active spring fire season in the northeast, and state fire authorities are doing their best to stay on top of it with the help of some key fire towers across the state.

What You Need To Know

  • Massachusetts has seen 340 forest fires in 2023

  • 174 of those fires have occured in the last week alone

  • Fire towers, like the one atop Mount Wachusett, have been key in spotting them early

  • Fire authorities said the public also has a role to play in fire prevention

So far this year, Massachusetts has seen 340 forest fires. On top of Mount Wachusett, the state's tallest fire tower allows spotters to coordinate with lower elevation towers and pinpoint where the danger is. 

“We have 42 towers across the state, and on any given high fire danger day we try to get 22, 23 of our key towers up and running," said Dave Celino, chief fire warden of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. 

Celino said of those 340 fires in 2023, 174 have happened in the last seven days alone. 

“We’ve had a number of fires started by folks burning a debris pile, actually burning a small debris pile thinking because it’s small it won’t go anywhere, but under the windy conditions we’ve had, with relative humidity dropping to 16, 17 18 percent, those fires are going to spread rapidly and get out of control very quickly," Celino said.

Fires have also been caused by sparks from a passing train or a vehicle’s exhaust system, but Celino said the overwhelming majority of what the state’s been dealing with in recent days could have been prevented. 

“Nationally, 95% of our wildfires are human-caused," Celino said. "In Massachusetts, we can say that over 98% of all wild land fires are human caused, and that spans all of the different categories under human cause, everything from cigarette butts to campfires that are abandoned.”

Celino said the public needs to have situational awareness, and pay attention to DCR alerts on days when it’s more dangerous to burn. He’s hoping the forecasted rain Sunday night calms things down, but recent history shows you can never get too comfortable. 

“What we’re hoping for is we don’t get a repeat of last year, where we start to transition into drought conditions," Celino said. "That causes a whole different fire behavior problem for us where we get deep-burning fire through the summer months and they’re very labor intensive. We had some fires last summer that took as long as 30 days to get 100% extinguished.”

Fire spotters will continue to be on heightened awareness at least until the end of April, when forests start to grow in again with vegetation.