Officials on Wednesday afternoon said the bit of rain Connecticut got on Tuesday night did little to extinguish the state’s brush fires.
As of Wednesday morning, firefighters were monitoring close to 70 fires around the state.
Connecticut is experiencing its worst drought on record. Officials said the state needs a soaking rain to put out the fires and hot spots.
Josh Cingranelli, a meteorologist with the state's Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said everything today is just as it was yesterday (before the rain).
“We checked the rain station on the fire this morning, it amounted to about four one hundredths of an inch of rain,” Cingranelli said. “So, you know, most people might think that was helpful. It really did nothing to help curb the fire danger threat out there.”
Cingranelli said the extreme fire event was a “new norm” for Connecticut — he blamed climate change.
Fire and state leaders are asking residents to avoid anything that could ignite a fire outside until the threat passes.
“Nine out of ten of these fires are caused by humans, yet we continue to see that number uptick,” state Emergency Management Director Bill Turner said. “Whether it's a cigarette being thrown out a window or somebody ignoring the municipal burn bans and having a fire pit or some sort of debris burn on their property.”
“We're really pleading with the public to take this seriously,” he said.
The biggest brush fire is in Berlin. Around 125 acres were burning on Wednesday afternoon.
