SOUTH COAST Raynham firefighters sent to a report of an unattended campfire Friday night found a brush fire spreading quickly in the wind, and tanker crews from Berkley, Lakeville, Middleborough and Rehoboth, along with a forestry unit from Dighton, helped them put it out, Fire Chief Bryan LaCivita said Saturday.
The department was dispatched to the area of Cobb Street at about 7:45 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, according to a statement the Raynham Fire Department released Saturday morning. When crews arrived, they found what the chief called a significant brush fire, fueled by windy conditions that caused it to spread rapidly.
What crews faced
The location of the fire made it hard to reach, the department said. Crews ran into access problems and had to clear brush and trees to cut a direct path to the flames.
Raynham Fire called for mutual aid. The Berkley, Lakeville, Middleborough and Rehoboth fire departments sent tankers to bring more water to the scene, and Dighton Fire sent a forestry unit, the department said. Raynham Police and Bridgewater Fire also helped, and the Taunton Fire Department provided station coverage.
Crews put out the flames and stayed at the scene watching for hot spots until about 11:30 p.m., nearly four hours after the first call, according to the department.
"The rate at which this fire was spreading and the outside conditions, made this fire extremely difficult to put out," LaCivita said in the statement.
The weather Friday night
Skies were clear at Taunton Municipal Airport on Friday evening, and a northwest wind there blew at about 7 to 14 mph from the time of the call until about 10 p.m., National Weather Service observations show. The station recorded a gust of about 20 mph at 7:10 p.m., about 35 minutes before the call, and another of 18 mph at 9:52 p.m. Relative humidity at the airport ran from 41% to 47% through that stretch.
The wind at the airport had eased to about 3 to 5 mph by 10:35 p.m., the observations show, while crews were still working on hot spots.
What happens next
The Raynham Fire Department is investigating the cause of the fire, the chief said.
LaCivita credited the departments that came from neighboring towns. "In incidents like this one, our mutual aid partners play an instrumental role in increasing our water supply and bringing more personnel to the scene," he said. "Without our mutual aid partners, this fire could have spread even further. We remain grateful for their partnership and collaborative efforts."
South Coast 360 News will update this story if the department releases the cause or more details. The Raynham Fire Department's listed phone number is 508-824-2713.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
Every fact about the fire comes from the Raynham Fire Department's own statement, posted on its website at 10:58 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, which we read in full that morning. The weather figures come from the National Weather Service's observation record for Taunton Municipal Airport, converted from kilometers per hour to miles per hour and from UTC to Eastern time. We heard fire radio traffic on the scanner Friday evening; nothing from the radio is used in this story. We checked each date and weekday against a calendar. Not heard: the department has not said how much land burned or what caused the fire.
Corrections
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Sources (2)
- Raynham Fire Department, "Raynham Fire Department Responds to Brush Fire" (posted Oct. 31, 2026, 10:58 a.m.)The 7:45 p.m. dispatch to the area of Cobb Street for a report of an unattended campfire, the significant brush fire, the wind, the access problems, the mutual aid departments and their roles, the 11:30 p.m. finish, the cause investigation, the chief's quotes and the photos. Read Oct. 31, 2026, 11:03 a.m.
- National Weather Service, observations at Taunton Municipal Airport (KTAN), Oct. 30 eveningSky, wind speed, direction and gusts, and relative humidity from 6:15 p.m. to 11 p.m. Oct. 30, converted to mph and Eastern time. Read Oct. 31, 2026, about 11:05 a.m.