The odor from a forest fire that has burned roughly 1,000 acres in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens spread across Martha’s Vineyard and southeastern New England Tuesday.
The Dukes County Communications Center (911) reported receiving calls from Island residents curious about the smell. The National Weather Service (NWS) in Taunton also fielded calls about the widespread smell of smoke.
NWS meteorologist Kim Buttrick said satellite imagery showed visible smoke from the Pine Barrens fire traveling on strong southwest winds in the direction of Martha’s Vineyard earlier Tuesday. The wind shifted later in the day to a more southerly direction, she told The Times.
Liz Witham of Aquinnah, in an email to The Times, said the smell was so strong “that many people across the Island reported on Islander’s Talk on Facebook that they thought their house or their neighbor’s house was on fire. It smells like a dump burning or burning plastic.”
One man familiar with the area told Ms. Buttrick that the area was once used as a dump, which may account for the foul smell.