On April 16th at 14:12 hrs Yorktown crews were dispatched to Turkey Mountain Preserve located off RT 118 for a possible brush fire on top of the mountain. Car 2531, Engine 273 and Mini-Attack 8 were responding a short time later. While units were responding 60 control advised that they were now receiving multiple calls for smoke visible from the Taconic State Parkway from as far a way as Pleasantville as units approached the scene a large column of smoke was visible from the mountain, after the arrival of E-273 and MA-8 crews grabbed Indian tanks, rakes, saws, and began to make their way up the 831 feet to the summit, crews split with heavy smoke throughout the 125 acre preserve and a unknown location of the fire. Crews finally located the seat of the fire a couple hundred feet off the blue trail with decent fire making it way toward the blue trail with the first arriving crew giving a size up of 50X50. Seconds later after the winds changed direction the once small brush fire was now forcing crews to retreat. With no water source and crews making no headway on the rapidly advancing fire Car 2531 requested mutual aid from numerous departments from Northern Westchester to respond with manpower as well as WCPD Air 2.
With numerous departments now responding and crews still struggling with the advancing fire a second access point was established off Underhill Ave that allowed for ATVs to reach near the summit to provide a semi- sufficient water supply. With the combined effort of multiple departments and the combination of the Westchester County Police Helicopter making multiple drops of water the fire was finally contained after a couple hours of hard work and burning more than 8 acres of rough terrain. Units later evacuated after extinguishing as many hotspots as they could before sunset. All Yorktown units returned to service at 20:04hrs. The YHFD would like to extend our thanks to all of the responding mutual aid departments including Somers, Bedford Hills, Katonah, Millwood, Croton, Montrose, Buchanan, Continental Village and the Lake Mohegan Fire Department that stood by in our quarters during the incident.
Units:
Car 2531, Car 2532, Car 2533, Engine 273, Mini-Attack 8, Utility 36, Utility 83
Mutual Aid:
Somers: C2441, C2443, MA-14, U-5, U-81, U-35, Bedford Hills: C2032, C2033, MA-9, Millwood: C2251, C2253, MA-10, U44, Katonah: C2211, C2212, MA-15, U-8, Croton: C2082, C2083, E118, Croton EMS, Montrose: C2271, U53, Buchanan: C2551, U4, Continental Village: C2131, C2132, MA-23, ATV, Mohegan: E255 (relocate to YHFD Station 1), Yorktown VAC: 86B1, Mohegan VAC :69B1, Yorktown ALS: 34Medic 1, Westchester County Department of Emergency Services: County Car 2, County brush fire ATV’s, Field Comm. 1, Battalion 10, Battalion 16, Battalion 17, EMS 10, EMS 11, EMS 12, OEM, Westchester County Police: Air 2, Yorktown PD, New York State PD, NYC DEP PD, New York State DEC PD. Yorktown Highway Department.
Photos Courtesy of Bedford Hills FD
Photos Courtesy of Bedford Hills FD
Photo Courtesy of Croton FD
Photo Courtesy of Croton FD
WCPD Air 2 Filling up the “Bambie Bucket”
Photo Courtesy of Arthur Roosa III
