Eyewitness to the fire

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Denise Leary, a vacationer from Washington, D.C., was kayaking about noon toward Long Point and about 45 minutes later saw the cloud of white smoke appear over the horizon.

‘I saw the cloud rise and realized it was a wildfire. I went down the island a little further to Gallagher’s Beach and I could see the flames licking the top of the ridge.’

Leary said she could still see the kids at the camp nearby playing.

‘I saw the clouds of smoke get bigger and bigger and didn’t see the resources move in to around 2 p.m. to tackle the fire,’ she said. Then authorities began evacuating the camp with the kids and as she paddled back into the harbor they began to evacuate parts of town nearest the hills. ‘It was very disorganized. Some of the locals believed they’d bring in a cruise ship for them - which I found out was wrong. There’s a lot of people vacationing. Some people told me they went to their hotel and it was shut up. They couldn’t get thousands of dollars of luggage. There is sooty white stuff coming down all over town,’ she said.

-Richard Winton