Bill Williams is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media a large brush fire burned for more than four hours on May 10, in Stuyvesant. “It was a tough fire to fight,” said Stuyvesant fire chief Steve Montie. Some brush burned, but the fire mostly consumed piles of cut-down trees, wood and other items. Some of the material that burned was buried underground, Montie said. At about 3:30 p.m., Columbia County 911 dispatched the Stuyvesant Fire Company to a location on Eichybush Road, after receiving reports of a brush fire consuming roughly 100 feet of land. When firefighters arrived on the scene, the fire had grown and seven more fire companies with brush fighting equipment were summoned to the scene. The blaze was located about half a mile off Eichybush Road, in the middle of a large field. Fire trucks were able to use one of the dirt roads on the farm to get to the fire, but driving the trucks around the fire scene was more difficult. Firefighters used a pond on the property as a water source. An excavator, a payloader and a bulldozer were used to pull apart the piles of trees so firefighters could get more water on them, Montie said. Smoke from the fire was visible from several miles away. The fire was brought under control after about four hours. More than one acre was blackened, Montie said. There were no reported injuries. The fire began because the property owner was illegally burning materials and was subsequently ticketed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Montie said. The annual statewide burn ban went into effect on March 16, and is set to expire May 14. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.