ELLENVILLE, N.Y. -- State officials say the damp weather is helping them get the wildfire at Sam's Point Preserve under control. Officials now estimate about 1,897 acres have burned.
“We had a considerable amount of moisture,” said New York State Public Information Officer Jim Hay. "It’s not just the amount of rain, it’s the duration. Between the rain and the fog and the moisture in the air, it helped to keep the fire down and wet much of the fuels that had been burning."
Helicopters are still in the air, dumping water at several places on the mountain. But even though firefighters are making progress, officials still classify this as an active brush fire.
“It really just is a game of brute force to be honest. You've got to get enough water into the location, you've got to get enough people moving dead material out of path of the fire, where it's going, so that ultimately you can extinguish it,” said Secretary of the Firefighters Association of New York John D'Alessandro.
D'Alessandro says firefighters still need to be vigilant about hot spots on the mountain.
“Even though we've had some rain over the past few weeks, the undergrowth is extremely dry and has a lot of potential to ignite. People will have simple innocent things like a camp fire in the backyard or something in the fire pit in the campground, and don't realize that one ember taken by wind can start brush fire of the magnitude we have now,” said D'Alessandro.
The state burn ban remains in effect until May 14. State officials are reporting two firefighters suffered minor injuries. No buildings in the area have been threatened by the fire, and no civilians were injured.