Brush Fire - Cascade Park

At 5:18pm on 26 July 2026, the Essex Junction Fire Department was dispatched for a smoke investigation after a caller reported smoke coming from the wooded area behind Cascade Park.

EJFD responded with Car 9, Engine 5, and Engine 7, along with 9 personnel, to the area. Engine 5 arrived on scene, and the Lieutenant walked into the woods to investigate, finding a spreading brush fire along a walking trail that overlooks the Winooski River. Crews initially tried extinguishing the fire with backpack fire pumps, rakes. and Pulaski tools. This was effective, but slow. Based on this, it was decided to move Engine 7 as close to the fire as we could get it. Engine 7 moved to the edge of the wood line, and crews used a 1 3/4" cross lay to extinguish the fire. Crews also conducted an overhaul of the fire, raking a bare line to protect against spread.

The fire appears to have started from an illegal recreation fire set on an overlook for the river. The fire appears to have burned for a while, possibly all day, before the smoke alerted residents on Cascade to the fire. Open burning within the City is illegal. Fires must be contained to a fire pit/ring and must be clean wood. If anyone has information on who started the fire, please get in touch with EJFD@essexjctfire.org.

Crews worked for about an hour and a half on scene before returning to service.

Temperatures at the time of the fire were still in the 80s and humid, so EJFD mitigated heat injury risk by removing jackets as crews had responded unsure of the type of fire and were in full structural firefighting gear.

Temperatures at the time of the fire were still in the 80s and humid, so EJFD mitigated heat injury risk by removing jackets as crews had responded unsure of the type of fire and were in full structural firefighting gear.

Temperatures at the time of the fire were still in the 80s and humid, so EJFD mitigated heat injury risk by removing jackets as crews had responded unsure of the type of fire and were in full structural firefighting gear.