By Jaime Thomas

As area fire departments were finishing up a long, strenuous day on Main Street, they were called to respond to a working brush fire at 181 Beecher Road.

Noreen Tennant had stopped home to drop off her son, who didn’t want to wait at his grandmother’s doctor appointment, when she noticed a lot of smoke in her yard and in the woods behind her house.

Her daughter had been in the house but did not realize the grass and several trees were smoldering and flaming. Tennant thinks ashes she had dumped from her wood stove started the fire.

“I put the ash can out yesterday, and it was ice cold. The wind just came out of nowhere — I never would’ve dumped them if they were hot,” Tennant said.

Firefighters from West Pawlet were the first to arrive on the scene. They were followed by Hartford, Kingsbury, Granville and North Granville. Officials were able to keep the fire under control by spraying trees and grass with water, raking over hot spots and cutting down any dead trees that were aflame using chainsaws.

They estimated the damaged area to be about a half acre and said grass fires do tend to happen occasionally at this time of year, especially during dry weather.

Tennant was grateful for the quick response.

“I know they’re exhausted (from everything else going on,)” she said, “They’re doing a good job.”