“Did you smell the barbecue smell in the air?” That was a question many Massachusetts residents frequently asked over the last few months.

New England is well-known for its vibrant autumn foliage, especially this fall — when days were mostly bright and sunny, and colorful leaves lingered on trees until mid-October. But the beautiful scenery often came with smoky smells drifting through the air.

According to data from the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services, there were 664 wildfires across the state this fall, burning more than 4,000 acres of land.

“That’s more acres than usually burned in two full years in Massachusetts,” said Jake Wark, a Department of Fire Services spokesperson.

The total number of wildfires also showed unusual growth. Massachusetts typically averages 15 wildfires in October and 21 in November. However, 196 wildfires were reported in October this year, and the number drastically spiked to more than 400 in November.

With little to no rain in September and minimal rainfall afterward, state officials announced in mid-November that almost all of Massachusetts was at Level 3 — critical drought conditions — except for Cape Cod and the Islands, which remained at normal levels.

The prolonged drought led to multiple major and smaller wildfires across the state, from east to west.

Some of the largest fires included the Butternut Fire in Great Barrington, which scorched more than 1,700 acres; a blaze in the Boxford State Forest, which burned more than 500 acres; and a lightning strike at Lynn Woods Reservation, which consumed more than 400 acres. Smaller fires also occurred in Hampshire and Franklin counties, such as at the Fitzgerald Lake Conservation Area in Northampton, on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus and along South Mountain Road in Northfield. The spike in wildfires prompted fire departments across Franklin County to advise residents about outdoor burning bans in place.

Thanks to steady rain in late November and December “those have all been resolved,” Wark said. He noted there might still be lingering heat under the ground in some areas but emphasized there’s “nothing that poses a risk to the community or a risk of spreading or growing.”

What caused fires?

“Typically in Massachusetts, wildfire season is in the spring,” said Rachindra Mawalagedara, a postdoctoral research fellow with Artificial Intelligence for Climate and Sustainability at Northeastern University’s Institute for Experiential AI. “We have a lot of dry vegetation, and then as soon as you have an ignition source, when the winds pick up, it’s really easy for these fires to spread.”

Wark said almost all the fires this fall were sparked by recreational human activity, even if unintentional.

Vandana Rao, the state’s director of water policy, said extremely low rainfall also contributed to the unprecedented wildfires.

“As the soil dries up, we see fires burning deeper into the soil, lasting longer and requiring much more effort to put out,” Rao said.

Scott Turner, chief of the Great Barrington Fire Department, oversaw the response to the Butternut Fire, the largest wildfire in the state.

Turner said the fire initially burned about 10 to 15 acres the night they received the call. They expected it to slow down overnight due to cooler temperatures and higher humidity.

However, by 7 a.m. the next day, the fire had grown to more than 100 acres. It continued to worsen over the following three days.

“Each evening, it would grow at least double or triple in size,” Turner said. By the fourth day, the fire had burned 900 acres and eventually consumed 1,700 acres.

He said 15 acres is normally considered a large fire in this area.

“It is uncommon for fires to grow as quickly as this one did in the Northeast,” Turner said. He noted that the area had not seen a fire in more than 60 years, leading to an accumulation of ground debris that provided fuel.

Turner said the fire’s remote location and steep terrain — and that it grew unexpectedly quick — limited their prior option to use water engines to slow it down.

As a small team with more experience handling smaller fires, Turner said when being forced to face an unexpected and complicated situation like this, they had to double tasks and roles for some staff, and it was one of the most challenging events for them.

Turner said they used leaf blowers on the first day to remove leaves from the soil near the fire. They were followed by people with rakes, shovels and wildland firefighting hand tools to “dig a line” — creating a perimeter by digging “down through the leaves and the branches and the roots and everything to soil that won’t burn,” he explained.

This was the most time-consuming initial task, particularly with limited water access around the fire.

“If it was in an area more easily accessible, we could have brought forestry engines in and used hoses with water, but it just wouldn’t have been practical,” Turner said.

After getting only two to three hours of sleep for five days, the team changed its approach, holding planning meetings each evening to prepare for the fire to potentially grow larger.

“We started having planning meetings at the end of the day, assuming that the fire would either double in size or triple even, then we could get right to work first thing the next day,” Turner said. “If things had changed overnight, we could have always called for more resources.”

Turner mentioned four members from the Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming provided professional assistance.

“Because part of the fire burnt on across the Appalachian Trail, the National Park Service sent them up here,” he said. “They were kind of on loan to us for as long as we needed them, as long as Pennsylvania didn’t have any more fires.”

“It ended up being a really great learning experience for us,” Turner added.

He added that Massachusetts Air National Guard and Massachusetts State Police also contributed significantly to putting out the fires, with their helicopters dropping water to the burning areas and spotting more locations.

“They used their infrared cameras to find hot spots. They did some mapping as well for us from the air,” he said.

He said the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the local communities were a huge help during this time.

Speaking of the common challenges for firefighters in multiple fires during the past few months, Wark noted the unstable burning trees also added more difficulties for firefighters in addition to smoke inhalation, exhaustion and overexertion.

“We saw a couple of times with firefighters being struck by falling trees or limbs, and many close calls that were reported,” he said. “Fortunately, no severe injuries.”

Recovery

Turner said the heavy rainstorm on Dec. 11 was enough to gain control. “Hopefully now we have 100% extinguishment,” adding that the vegetation recovery looks promising based on his experience with prescribed fires.

“It wasn’t a devastating fire like they have out West, where it completely burns everything,” he said. “The surface of the ground is more open to new vegetation growing, and that brings the animals back in. You’ll see new grass growing.”

One local hiking community also told him that one of the paths they’ve been walking consisted of leaves, sticks and roots that had piled up over the years, so the surface is now about 5 inches lower.

Mawalagedara said exposing bare soil could lead to significant soil erosion during heavy rainfall events.

She said due to climate change, there might be invasive species moving into the region and competing with the regrowth of native vegetation.

Drought remains

Rao, the state’s director of water policy, said there has been a cumulative deficit of 8 to 11 inches of rainfall since August in 80% of the state, whereas in the Cape and Islands, it has been 3-5 inches.

“We’ve seen extremely low stream flow, where many of our streams have dried up completely, or have areas [that] have just been disconnected, meaning there’s no flow in some,” she said. “We’re certainly seeing ponds themselves dwindling in size.”

Rao advised residents across the state to be aware of water usage and save more water at the individual level. The water level in the reservoirs has also gone down, leading to a decline in the groundwater system across the state, which she believes will take more time to recover.

“We really want to see that full recovery at a regional scale,” Rao said. “It will take few more [rainfall] events like what we’re experiencing, slow rain throughout the day that starts to replenish our water bodies and in our various systems.”

Zichang Liu writes for the Greenfield Recorder through the Boston University Statehouse Program.