HADDAM — A pickup truck blaze near a Tinker Road home helped catalyze a 200-acre brush fire on state forest land Friday, according to Haddam's volunteer fire company.
Olivia Drake, the company's public information officer, said firefighters responded at 3:20 p.m. to the vehicle fire, which spread to a neighboring "lean-to" and house before igniting about five acres of nearby woodlands. The blaze had extended across 90 acres before 9 p.m., and Drake said fire crews contained it at 12:30 a.m. Saturday.
Drake said there were no injuries, but the house collapsed Friday night. She said some areas were left to "free burn."
“The brush fire will continue to burn and there likely will be significant smoke in Haddam for the next few days,” Haddam Fire Chief Sam Baber said in a statement. “If any residents notice fire near their properties or out of the burned areas, please call 911.”
The Haddam fire marshal is investigating.
Drake said firefighters couldn't immediately get water and their equipment to the scene because of "difficult terrain and limited driveway access," so they drafted water from a nearby brook and pumped it to Tinker Road. She said the fire spread rapidly across Tinker Road and Ruth Hill Road into the state forest, and she credited the quick movement to high winds and a dry forest floor.
She said Haddam firefighters and state fire officials opted to set a controlled fire — known as back burning — to create a barrier and stop the spread. That back burning encompassed about 200 acres, extending from the Route 82 Connector, along Ruth Hill and Old Cart roads, to a powerline trail, according to an email from Drake.
She said fire crews extinguished fires that spread to other yards, and they moved to Old Cart Road to keep the fire from reaching homes.
Drake said firefighters left the scene at 1:45 a.m.
She said crews from over a dozen towns responded. Those included the Middletown South Fire District, Haddam Neck Volunteer Fire Department and crews from Chester, Middlefield, Durham, Killingworth, East Haddam, Essex, Westbrook, Old Saybrook, Deep River, Clinton, Westfield and East Hampton.
She added that Guilford provided a drone, the state sent two county fire coordinators to assist and Middlesex Health and the Haddam Volunteer Ambulance Service had emergency medical services at the ready.
April 19, 2025
Reporter
Jarrod Wardwell is a local reporter covering Fairfield and Easton for Hearst Connecticut Media Group. He recently graduated with a journalism degree from the George Washington University, where he served as the editor in chief of The GW Hatchet and interned with CNN. Wardwell is originally from Winthrop, Massachusetts and is now based at the Connecticut Post in Bridgeport.