Neighbors press Swansea select board for investigation after large permitted burn; homeowners and fire officials dispute scale and response

Dory Nast, a Matthews Road resident, told the Swansea select board that on April 10 neighbors called 911 after a large permitted burn near her property produced heavy smoke and a loud blast and that no fire department apparatus arrived.

"Multiple neighbors called 911 that night. They were told help was coming and no help ever arrived," Nast said at the board's public comment period. "I am demanding a full investigation of this incident and I want to know why 911 calls were ignored. Who made the decision not to respond?"

Several other neighbors described the same night as frightening. Bruce Bohan, who lives across the street from the burn site, said he saw someone "literally taking the can and sloshing it on" the pile and that the resulting blast rattled windows.

"It was a great big kaboom," Bohan said, describing what he believed was an accelerant-driven flare-up. "The fire got out of hand and luckily they got it under control by pushing dirt on it.">

Homeowners whose property was the permitted burn said they followed the town's permit process and that a visiting state forester subsequently inspected the site and found no violations. Biona Bladget, who identified herself as the homeowner at 316 Matthews Road, told the board the assistant chief was on site and that the pile was manageable.

"At no point was the fire out of control," Bladget said, and she said the site had water available and an excavator on hand as extra precaution. She also told the board she had been criticized on social media and objected to what she called an inaccurate depiction of the incident.

The town's on-scene fire official, who introduced himself in the meeting record as Vincent Sers, said he inspected the burn before it was lit, issued a category-3 burn permit (a class-3 permit that town practice allows between the evening and midnight window and is valid for seven days), and later confirmed with dispatch that the permitted burn was under control.

"6 p.m. I issued the burn permit," the official said. He added that after arriving on scene he paced the pile and measured it at roughly 8 feet by 16 feet, not the 77 feet some neighbors estimated from visible glow in night photographs. He said he called dispatch once to report he was on scene and that the burn was permitted and under control, and that no immediate Swansea Fire Department response was required.

The state forester did visit the site three days later, the board was told, and the forester confirmed only that prohibited materials were separated and said, according to speakers, that the excavation the homeowner used to move the pile complicated any determination of whether the fire had been "out of control." The forester's written report was not yet available at the meeting; homeowners said they had requested copies and would share them when they arrived.

Neighbors and some board members said the dispute illustrated limits in how the town and dispatch learn about burns: online permits can be issued without an in-person notice to the municipality, and neighbors said they were alarmed when they saw a large glow and heard an explosion.

Fire Chief Eric (present at the meeting) later explained the permit classes: a class-3 burn is for brush/clearing and is allowed only if it is more than 50 feet from structures and the permit is normally issued for a seven-day window; the chief said the department prefers to inspect class-3 burns but that online permits may be issued without prior inspection and that dispatch has access to online permit logs.

The key factual disputes at the meeting were: whether multiple 911 calls were effectively ignored or canceled while a fire official on site declined apparatus response; whether accelerants were used (several neighbors said they saw a can used in the pile; the on-scene official denied any accelerant was added); and the actual size and hazard posed by the pile (neighbors cited a large glow and a 77-foot measurement by sight, the official cited on-the-ground pacing at a much smaller size).

Board members said they heard credible concerns from both sides and that mistakes may have been made on both sides of the dispute. The board told attendees it would wait for the state forester's written report and then determine next steps, including whether to change local permitting, notification, or inspection practices for class-3 burns.

"We're going to wait to get the permit and we're going to discuss it," a select board member said. "We'll write something up and state how we feel about the whole incident."