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Clarification: The piece of land identified in this article is part of the Hudson Highlands State Park, which abuts the Camp Smith military reservation. In an earlier version of this story, the piece of land was incorrectly identified as Bear Mountain.
CORTLANDT, N.Y. Officials from the Continental Village Fire Department confirmed that a 20 acre brush fire in Hudson Highlands State Park was contained as of 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon.
All fire personnel are out of the woods at this point, theres only a couple of spots still smoldering. State parks personnel will be back up to check in the morning, but its out, said Charlie Valt, chief of the Continental Village Fire Department.
Continental Village worked on extinguishing the fire from about 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, when parks personnel said the fire was reported, to late Thursday afternoon. Firefighters didnt leave the scene of the fire until late Wednesday evening and arrived back at about 7 a.m. Thursday morning to continue fighting the brush fire, Valt said.
Steep slopes and remote terrain made accessing the fire difficult, crews took all-terrain vehicles into the area of the fire and some supplies were hiked in on-foot.
Beginning Wednesday afternoon, commuters crossing the Bear Mountain Bridge could hear and see Westchester County helicopters carrying hundreds of gallons of water to the smoking peak of Anthonys Nose, near the Appalachian Trail.
The helicopters used what are referred to as bambi-buckets to carry 43,000 pounds of water to the scene, making over 30 trips from the a lake located on Camp Smiths property to a remote location of the mountain near Anthonys Nose. The helicopters dropped a total of 5,400 gallons of water in the park as of Wednesday evening, according to Kieran OLeary of the Westchester County Police.
Parks officials will be back on the mountain Friday morning to ensure that portions of the brush still smoldering did not reignite. Valt said Continental Village Firefighters would not return to the scene Friday.
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