Brush fire tears through 20 acres in Dedham

DEDHAM, Mass. (WHDH) -- A winding trail of towering flames ripped through 20 acres of brush and counting in Dedham on Thursday evening.

 “The flames coming up were enormous. If I could see them from here, you’d have to guess they were more than 10 feet high,” said Chuck Delloiacano, who lives near the fire.

“You can see the ashes falling down on us now. It’s just -- the smell is horrible,” said Marcella Musto, a neighbor.

Neighbors in Dedham’s Greenlodge neighborhood watched the fire move fast toward the Route 128 railway station, racing across the dry woods, just after 6 p.m. Thursday.

Firefighters from all over the area struggled to get close enough to fight the blaze.

“The darker it gets the more dangerous it gets. We’ve got to let the fire come to us,” said Bill Cullinane, chief of the Dedham fire department. “Access is the biggest challenge. We know where it is. We can see it, but we can’t get to it.”

Officials have yet to contain the flames. The fire chief says so far homes are not in any danger and no one has been evacuated, but embers still pose a risk.

“This is a quite densely populated neighborhood. The concern is of the embers and the brush moving this way,” said Jim MacDonald, chairman of Dedham board of selectmen.

The cause of the brush fire is unknown, but train tracks cut through the woods and a spark could have come off a passing train.

Firefighters remained on the scene Thursday night. They told 7News that infrared technology on their helicopters showed there were still hot spots in the area.

Stay with 7NEWS and WHDH.com for updates to this developing story. If you have information related to the story, please e-mail newstips@whdh.com.

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