A brush fire burned around 100 acres of marshland Sunday night on Jenkins Neck Road in lower Gloucester.

Abingdon Volunteer Fire and Rescue Squad Chief Brad Burgess said the fire began sometime around 7:30 p.m. not far from the intersection of Jenkins Neck and Owens roads and traveled in the brush along the creek line, venturing into a stand of trees here and there, where it tended to die down.

Burgess said as he approached the scene, he saw an orange glow in the sky, indicating substantial fire. There were already units on the scene, he said, and he coordinated with them to develop a strategy to protect any homes that might be in the fire line, since there was no way to access the fire in the marsh. Their only option was to try to predict what it might do and stay ahead of it, so they strategically placed engines, brush trucks, and tankers near homes along the three roads that the fire might impact as it moved, and waited for it to come to them.

The strategy proved successful, with no homes damaged. Burgess said around 25 volunteers from AVFRS and Gloucester Fire and Rescue Squad were on the scene until around 10:30 or 11 p.m. Three engines, three brush trucks, and two tankers responded to the scene, he said.

Homeowner

Ellie Holden, who owns a home on the water at the end of one of the three feeder roads impacted by the fire, said she and her partner Jean McKeen were having dinner when they noticed the fire off in the distance. The next thing they knew, there were fire trucks in their yard.

Firefighters told the homeowners to move their cars out of the way and to start hosing down their property, and Holden grabbed a water hose and began. Pretty soon, neighbors were there to help out, as well, she said.

Holden said she watched as the fire, still off in the distance, headed inland, toward Jenkins Neck Road. Then suddenly, with the wind behind it, the fire started moving toward her property. In five minutes, she said, it was just 50 feet away, with thick smoke rolling over the house, embers falling on the deck, and firefighters standing at the edge of the fire line, pouring water on it.

“It was crazy,” said Holden. “The firefighters—they’re a class act, a fine group of young men. In the midst of being extremely scared that everything we’ve ever worked for was going to be gone, their calm, their professionalism, calmed us down. They promised us they’d do everything they could for us, and they did. The smoke came barreling up and over, and they stayed right there with it. They’re the bomb.”