Blue Hills Reservation fires being investigated as "suspicious"
QUINCY - State fire officials are investigating fires that have broken out in the Blue Hills Reservation in recent weeks as suspicious.
"It was a huge area that seemed to still be hot," said hiker Lori Metcalf after walking through the area last week and came upon a broad area of burned and burning ground at least one mile into the woods.
It's not the first that Quincy firefighters have seen in recent weeks.
"We've been up there at least once a week for several hours," said Quincy deputy fire chief Joseph Barron.
It's raising concern the fires may be intentional given the frequency. It's enough that the Friends of the Blue Hills are posting photos of damage and hoping to offer a $5,000 reward for information.
"This is one of the few areas we have outside of Boston. We want to keep it pristine and want to protect it," said hiker Michelle Bell -protect the thousands who use the open space and crews who have to respond to the fires.
Deputy Chief Barron says at least a dozen fires in the woods since mid-April have broken out in the late evening or overnight hours, creating another kind of hazard for crews.
"Visibility is next to zero up there," he said. "Traipsing through the woods with literally thousands of feet of hose line in tough terrain is definitely not the safest thing for us to be doing."
Dry conditions are also fueling the fires, and state officials offer alarming statistics about human involvement.
"On average 98% or more of wildfires in Massachusetts are human-caused every year," said DCR Chief Fire Warden David Celino. "This year 2023 we can say 100% of them are human caused."
Just two weeks ago it was determined 400 acres that burned in the Lynn Woods were from fires intentionally set.
In the Blue Hills, the fires are being called suspicious and the Quincy deputy chief worries it's more than carelessness.
"You don't see a lot of smokers out hiking that often. I don't think we're seeing signs of discarded cigarettes or anything that would tend to believe it's accidental," Barron said.
