Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Nicol, as we start another week
Speaker 2: of Nightside, I will be with you all week long,
Speaker 2: Monday through Friday night from eight until midnight on each
Speaker 2: of those evenings, and.
Speaker 3: We will have a variety of guests this week. Later
Speaker 3: on tonight, we're going to talk with Plymouth County District
Speaker 3: Attorney Tim Cruz about that really insane, crazy murder in
Speaker 3: the middle of Plymouth Friday night. Later on tonight will
Speaker 3: talk about the non endorsements of that are not being
Speaker 3: made by major newspapers and major unions. Later on this week,
Speaker 3: we'll talk with a couple of pollsters about the presidential race,
Speaker 3: Spencer Kimball of Emerson College, Dave Paleologus of Suffolk University.
Speaker 3: And we will also talk with a realtor I know
Speaker 3: on Wednesday night about would you buy a haunted house?
Speaker 3: A house that we're totally had been haunted. I don't
Speaker 3: know that I would, but maybe some braver souls would.
Speaker 3: As we start off the week, let me welcome Dan Cantano,
Speaker 3: who is going to be our producer all week. Rob
Speaker 3: Brooks is on a well deserved vacation. But Dan is
Speaker 3: gonna have been working with Rob now for a couple
Speaker 3: of weeks and he's all set to fly the plane
Speaker 3: solo tonight. So we also, by the way, have to
Speaker 3: tell you that at nine o'clock tonight, I'm going to
Speaker 3: give away a couple of tickets to what's called Celtic Thunder, No,
Speaker 3: not the basketball team, Celtic Thunder, a musical journey with
Speaker 3: Irish music sensations. Sensations Celtic Thunder live down at Foxwood,
Speaker 3: and we're going to open up phone lines. Don't call now,
Speaker 3: we'll open up phone lines. After the nine o'clock news,
Speaker 3: we'll clear all the phone lines. So we'll explain that
Speaker 3: after the nine o'clock news. But first we're going to
Speaker 3: do the night Side News Update, which we do every
Speaker 3: night from eight until midnight. There'll be no phone calls
Speaker 3: during this hour, but we'll have four very interesting guests.
Speaker 3: We're going to start off with Danielle Ferrier, who is
Speaker 3: the CEO of Heading Home, Boston area's largest provider of
Speaker 3: services for homeless families with children. Danielle Ferrier, Welcome to NIGHTSTT.
Speaker 3: How are you this evening.
Speaker 4: I'm good, Thanks so much for having me, Dan, You're
Speaker 4: more than welcome.
Speaker 3: Tell us, first of all, Heading Home, who does it serve,
Speaker 3: as I understand you to serve both individuals and families.
Speaker 3: Tell us about the history of the program, and then
Speaker 3: I want to talk about what the status is of
Speaker 3: the homeless problem here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 4: Sure, so Heading Home is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year.
Speaker 4: We serve both families and individuals, as you said, and
Speaker 4: we do a lot of work in shelter as well
Speaker 4: as deeply affordable housing. So, in terms of your haunted
Speaker 4: house question, if you told me how many units, I
Speaker 4: might be willing to talking about.
Speaker 3: Uh, well that will we will have to wait until
Speaker 3: Wednesday night, that's for sure. So how big a budget
Speaker 3: do you have, I mean the scope of the problem,
Speaker 3: how much money? How much funding does it take to
Speaker 3: deal with the homeless situation in Massachusetts. I'm assuming you
Speaker 3: get a lot of private contributions, but there also should
Speaker 3: be some government funding as well.
Speaker 4: There is, so we have state, federal, and private funding
Speaker 4: to your point. And so typically the budget for our
Speaker 4: shelter system has been close to four hundred million, and
Speaker 4: this year it's closer to one billion. As folks have
Speaker 4: probably hurt, and the difference is in the yes, I'm sorry,
Speaker 4: go ahead.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, I'm sure. We can talk about the
Speaker 3: influx of migrants and what impact that has had. So
Speaker 3: normally four hundred million, variety of sources, So at any
Speaker 3: given time in the past, how large Let's deal with
Speaker 3: the migrant situation separately. Traditionally, how many people in Massachusetts
Speaker 3: or how many families, whatever metric you used, how many
Speaker 3: folks in any given year, you know, before the huge
Speaker 3: influx of migrants that now you're trying to help out
Speaker 3: and deal with. Before that, what would what were the
Speaker 3: numbers that you were dealing with on an annual basis?
Speaker 3: Just round them off for me.
Speaker 4: Sure, and so let me just clarify. The four hundred
Speaker 4: million is the state budget for this, not heading homes budget.
Speaker 4: So typically on any given year we any.
Speaker 3: So you get less than four hundred million. If I'm say, yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we are not a budget million, No, that's a
Speaker 4: state budget. We are approximately forty million.
Speaker 3: Okay, great, okay, can we serve.
Speaker 4: Last week, for example eighty Sorry sorry about that, No.
Speaker 3: Problem, No, that's I asked the questions. But I want
Speaker 3: to if I'm making an incorrect assumption. Thank you for
Speaker 3: that correction. So, before the migrants really arrived in for us,
Speaker 3: what were you dealing with in terms of traditionally the
Speaker 3: traditional homeless problem in Massachusetts?
Speaker 4: Sure, so I want to give in typical night, you
Speaker 4: had about thirty eight hundred to four thousand families in
Speaker 4: shelter in the state, and so over the year you'd
Speaker 4: see you know, seventy five hundred approximately as folks kind
Speaker 4: of come through the system. Some years those numbers are
Speaker 4: a bit lower, and obviously right now those numbers are.
Speaker 5: A bit higher.
Speaker 3: Sure, And so the Right to Shelter law, which was
Speaker 3: signed by Governor de Caucus in nineteen eighty three, had
Speaker 3: been a good piece of legislation that provided assistance because
Speaker 3: there are people always who fall out of fortune, who
Speaker 3: are in a bad relationship, and they need shelter. And
Speaker 3: that's why I pay my taxes, and I'm sure most
Speaker 3: people are very happy to pay taxes to help people,
Speaker 3: you know, who are amongst us who need help. So,
Speaker 3: now you have the overlay of the migrant population that
Speaker 3: has arrived in force in the last year and a
Speaker 3: half to two years, how much of an increase in
Speaker 3: percentage basis is the migrant population that has come in
Speaker 3: that now you also have to try to help.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So if we go back to the origin of
Speaker 4: the law, it's actually a child welfare law. So the
Speaker 4: law was created for children so that children did not
Speaker 4: sleep on the street. So to your point about our
Speaker 4: tax dollars, right, it is about making sure children aren't
Speaker 4: sleeping on the street.
Speaker 3: And when you look at industry, you know better, Danielle,
Speaker 3: you know it better than I. But I was there
Speaker 3: the day that the who had decided the law. I
Speaker 3: was working as a TV reporter at the time, and
Speaker 3: my understanding was was intended for primarily for women and
Speaker 3: women with children and pregnant women as well.
Speaker 4: Obviously, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 3: Right, So, yes, that's that's the real focus. It was
Speaker 3: not intended for single adult.
Speaker 4: Males, that is right, that is right. The groupings of
Speaker 4: adults are often served in different secretariats in other ways
Speaker 4: as well as the same housing secretariat.
Speaker 5: If we look at.
Speaker 4: The you asked me a question about the changes in
Speaker 4: terms of the influx of newly arriving families, right, so
Speaker 4: we know we had a system that was already taxed
Speaker 4: based on housing affordability here in the state of Massachusetts, right,
Speaker 4: So a system that was kind of struggling to keep
Speaker 4: up to begin with. So any additional needed, you know,
Speaker 4: is the straw factor. Right, And so we do see
Speaker 4: what we see now as in heading home, for example,
Speaker 4: about sixty percent of our families, our Massachusetts residents in
Speaker 4: about forty percent are the newly arriving families coming through
Speaker 4: our overflow site in Norfolk, Okay.
Speaker 3: And the overflow site in Norfolk is the former base
Speaker 3: date correctional facility. How many that is correct? How many families?
Speaker 3: How many family units or individuals are being housed out there?
Speaker 3: Because I know the folks in Norfolk have had a
Speaker 3: tough time getting information from the state as to how
Speaker 3: long that facility was going to be used, how much
Speaker 3: money was used to cop to to basically accommodate people
Speaker 3: to rehabilitate the facility, and how long it's supposed to
Speaker 3: remain open. So can you answer some of those thoughts
Speaker 3: are being given shelter out there, so.
Speaker 4: We know who this one. By a family account, you
Speaker 4: do buy occupancy allowable occupy, so maximum capacity we're allowed
Speaker 4: to four hundred and five humans in those buildings there.
Speaker 3: Okay, those four hundred and five, do you have any
Speaker 3: idea how many of them are children and now are
Speaker 3: being incorporated into the Norfolk public schools? I know that
Speaker 3: was an issue at one point.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Right now, right now, we have very few kids that
Speaker 4: are in the school system. I mean, based on the
Speaker 4: policy changes that the governor put in place, not all
Speaker 4: of the kids are necessarily hitting the kind of marker
Speaker 4: where they have to be enrolled. But they're approximately a
Speaker 4: dozen kids.
Speaker 3: Okay. And is that facility open ended or there was
Speaker 3: a point in time No, no, no representation was made
Speaker 3: that it would be open for a certain period of time.
Speaker 4: That is correct. That is still the case. It has
Speaker 4: a temporary certificate docupancy with a maximum of a year
Speaker 4: on it. That has not changed.
Speaker 3: Okay, So it could close, It could, but depending upon
Speaker 3: the need, it could close earlier than a year. But
Speaker 3: it is not intended to stay open any longer than
Speaker 3: a year.
Speaker 6: That is correct.
Speaker 3: Okay. Look, thank you for answering the questions so directly
Speaker 3: and so so clearly. So many people who I will
Speaker 3: talk to in situations like this, I'm willing to discuss
Speaker 3: questions or answer questions, and you know, I think people
Speaker 3: need to know what their text dollars are going for.
Speaker 3: And you made a great presentation today. Whether or not
Speaker 3: people agree with migrants coming or going or whatever, that's
Speaker 3: an issue. But your answers have been really fully incomplete,
Speaker 3: and I just want to say thank you. Is there
Speaker 3: anything you feel that I haven't asked that you'd like
Speaker 3: to add?
Speaker 4: I don't think so. I mean, I think the one
Speaker 4: thing that people sometimes ask me they'll answer for you,
Speaker 4: is if the families that are in the Norfolk site,
Speaker 4: for example, are here legally. So let me just say
Speaker 4: they actually are here legally under federal immigration law, because
Speaker 4: I know that's a question folks do sometimes have for
Speaker 4: an early arriving families.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I will probably disagree with you on that that some
Speaker 3: of them have been flown in. Uh, these are decisions
Speaker 3: and exceptions that have been made by the Biden administration.
Speaker 3: Are none of them people who have come across the
Speaker 3: border illegally?
Speaker 4: No, all or in our side have refuge your asylum
Speaker 4: status by the central government.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, if you come across the border and you
Speaker 3: claim that that that you have been persecuted or are
Speaker 3: under threat of persecution, you then claiming that status are
Speaker 3: given that status without any real proof, and then, as
Speaker 3: I understand it, you are given a court date to
Speaker 3: come and adjudicate that claim in that court anywhere from six,
Speaker 3: seven or eight years. So it's it's a bit of,
Speaker 3: you know, at least in my opinion, opinion, sort of
Speaker 3: a governmental euphemism here in which people by simply saying
Speaker 3: the words I'm here as an economic you know, as
Speaker 3: you know, I'm not an economic asciety, they say economic asylum,
Speaker 3: they're not allowed in. If they say I'm a political
Speaker 3: I'm claiming political asylum, they're able to come in. And
Speaker 3: I think people are smart enough to know what magic
Speaker 3: words they have to speak. So we'll just agree to
Speaker 3: disagree on that character.
Speaker 4: I don't know you agree disagrees, just the understanding we
Speaker 4: have legally, so I share it. When people ask the question,
Speaker 4: which is a very common one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Well, some night, I'd love to have you
Speaker 3: come back and take calls, and if you'd like to
Speaker 3: take some call, not now tonight, but would you come
Speaker 3: back some night and we'll take some from it.
Speaker 4: Will be my pleasure to come back, absolutely, and I'll
Speaker 4: answer it directly then too. Thank you, very wonderful appreciate pleasure.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I enjoyed that.
Speaker 6: Thanks so much.
Speaker 4: Take care.
Speaker 3: All right, welcome back and to talk with doctor Scheris Johnson.
Speaker 3: She's an author and a psychotherapist. She's talking about expired mindsets.
Speaker 3: It's a book that she's written entitled Releasing Patterns That
Speaker 3: No Longer Serve You. Well, this is an interesting conversation
Speaker 3: and it's coming right up. I want to again thank
Speaker 3: Danielle Ferrier of the Boston Shelter the system here which
Speaker 3: is called again End Homelessness in Greater Boston about the
Speaker 3: program Heading Home. She was a delightful guest and we'll
Speaker 3: have her on so you can talk to her as well.
Speaker 3: We'll be back with doctor Sharis Johnson on night Side
Speaker 3: right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3: Okay, we have our guests mixed up. Mixed up just
Speaker 3: a little bit here, so not Dan's fault. We're going
Speaker 3: to talk with Marcy Crown. She's a filmmaker also is
Speaker 3: an actor in what's called Crown Family Films, and she's
Speaker 3: very much in support of the concept of the power
Speaker 3: of sports for amputees. She has a special movie premiere
Speaker 3: event coming up on November twelfth, twelfth at the Cinema
Speaker 3: in Salem. Yeah, I watched a piece that you did.
Speaker 3: I think it was at a San Diego television station.
Speaker 3: Very impressive. Tell us about the power of sports for amputees.
Speaker 3: I think all of us are familiar with para athletes
Speaker 3: and para olympias.
Speaker 5: Yes, thank you Dan for having me on air. It's
Speaker 5: a documentary future. It's about three people with legman loss
Speaker 5: and we're looking to participate and or compete in sports,
Speaker 5: and with the right tools, their success is unlimited. And
Speaker 5: I use tools loosely because that could mean anything from
Speaker 5: prosthetics to even zip ons. By be Free, they have
Speaker 5: the zips right along the side of the pants that
Speaker 5: allow the pants to fit right over the prosthetics. So
Speaker 5: anything to create a level playing field such as sports
Speaker 5: is the best way and also the best way to
Speaker 5: get to know the the ampute as well.
Speaker 3: So how did you get involved in this? I mean
Speaker 3: it says you're a filmmaker. I don't know if you've
Speaker 3: done other films or not, but is this kind of
Speaker 3: your life's cause or is this something that is part
Speaker 3: of a greater subject of film issues.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, I started an event planning in the
Speaker 5: sports field actually, and that's where my love of sports
Speaker 5: come in comes in. And back in Atlanta for the
Speaker 5: nineteen ninety six Paralympic Games, I was involved in that
Speaker 5: and my perceptions changed so much about the abilities of
Speaker 5: the amputees and other people with disabilities that I thought,
Speaker 5: you know what, I'm going to make my first feature.
Speaker 5: This is my first feature on sports which I love
Speaker 5: and amputees.
Speaker 3: So now this film is going to be premiered, it
Speaker 3: says Cinema Salem. Is that Salem, Massachusetts?
Speaker 8: Yes, Cinema say, how does the how does the film
Speaker 8: make up from San Diego end up with a special
Speaker 8: movie premiere event in Salem, Massachusetts?
Speaker 5: I know, Well, be Free that's one of my movie sponsors.
Speaker 5: They live in Boston, and I wanted.
Speaker 3: To have what is be what is b free? Clus Free?
Speaker 5: Yes, they provide zip ons, which are hands with zippers
Speaker 5: on the side.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, yes, yes, And actually interviewed them about a
Speaker 3: year or so ago. I think, Okay, now I know
Speaker 3: what that is.
Speaker 8: They Yes, they do some of these.
Speaker 3: These adaptive clothing for for people exactly who have prostatics. Yep, absolutely,
Speaker 3: and so so the movie. How how long is the
Speaker 3: mill is the movie?
Speaker 5: The movie is an hour and a half.
Speaker 3: And we were regular it's a regular feature link film.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know they're talking about a brief brief Okay, uh, Well,
Speaker 3: some of them, our olympians or para athletes be attending
Speaker 3: the premiere.
Speaker 5: We are going to have Nico Calabria. He is actually
Speaker 5: a captain and a player of the US amp soccer
Speaker 5: team right in Boston, so he is very well knowledgeable
Speaker 5: on sports and amputees, and so he will be there,
Speaker 5: and I'm working on some other people that will be there.
Speaker 5: I'll be there to answer any questions. And I'm so
Speaker 5: excited about showing this film to the Boston community and
Speaker 5: getting them interested and aware of all the resources that
Speaker 5: are in place for them.
Speaker 3: You know, there are a lot of people who lost limbs.
Speaker 3: When I say a lot, you know several people who
Speaker 3: lost limbs during the marathon bombing.
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, I am aware of that. In fact, some
Speaker 5: of them I believe went to participate in the Paralympics
Speaker 5: in Paris as well.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's what I'm saying. Some of them have have
Speaker 3: turned their love of sport and have overcome. Uh, the
Speaker 3: the I shouldn't say limitations because they have no limitations,
Speaker 3: but the the the horrific injuries that they suffered. Uh,
Speaker 3: and some of them have gone back and have run,
Speaker 3: you know, races, you know, I mean, the spirit is
Speaker 3: just absolutely incredible. If folks want to get more information
Speaker 3: about this film, uh, and it's premiere event on November
Speaker 3: twelfth at the Cinema Cinema Salem. Of course, Salem is
Speaker 3: going to be a big area of activity in the
Speaker 3: next few days with Halloween, I hear I have about that.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And also, by the way, have a whole bunch of fires.
Speaker 3: We've had a really dry month of September and October
Speaker 3: here in New England and all of a sudden, I know,
Speaker 3: call California is very familiar with spontaneous fire, sure fires
Speaker 3: that grew through carelessness of the disposal of you know,
Speaker 3: embers or cigarettes, cigarette butts. So it's going to be
Speaker 3: it's it's going to be. It's going to be a
Speaker 3: well known city for now. But how can people get
Speaker 3: more information on this particular film.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you for asking. If they go to my
Speaker 5: website www. Dot Crown with a k k R own
Speaker 5: Familyfilms dot com. If they look under the screening, there's
Speaker 5: going to be a link to event right and that
Speaker 5: will take them right to the tickets. And it's twenty
Speaker 5: dollars a ticket that includes the networking. We're also going
Speaker 5: to have some fantastic food and some desserts, beverages, and
Speaker 5: then after the film we're going to have a question
Speaker 5: and answer panel. So it's really a nice evening from
Speaker 5: about six to nine where everybody can enjoy the movie
Speaker 5: and network and meet other people in the community.
Speaker 3: And I'm guessing November twelfth is a Tuesday night. The
Speaker 3: reason I know that and I'm not guessing is that
Speaker 3: November fifth is election night and so therefore they is
Speaker 3: Tuesday November, so well, the twelfth Tuesday, that's for sure.
Speaker 3: Marcy Crown, thank you so much for your time tonight,
Speaker 3: and thank you for being an advocate for sports for amputees.
Speaker 3: Because thank you so.
Speaker 5: Much, Dan, thank you for having me on and I'm
Speaker 5: excited to be able to show this there in Boston area.
Speaker 3: And the website Crown with a KKR own Familyfilms, All
Speaker 3: one word dot com. Get yourself some tickets and enjoy
Speaker 3: a really special event. Thanks. Thanks so much. Marcy. Very
Speaker 3: nice to meet you.
Speaker 5: Oh, nice to meet you. Have a great night you too.
Speaker 3: All right, welcome back. Producer. Dan is going to Dan
Speaker 3: Cantano's gonna figure out where we're going next. We have
Speaker 3: we're missing one of our guests, but we have another
Speaker 3: one lined up. We're going to talk, I know, to
Speaker 3: the State Fire Marshal. I believe we'll be back on
Speaker 3: Nightside right after the news break.
Speaker 1: You're on night Side with Dan Ray on w b Z,
Speaker 1: Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3: All right, we are delighted to be joined by the
Speaker 3: State Fire Marshall, State Fire Marshal John Devine. Have I
Speaker 3: pronounced that correctly? Fire Marshall.
Speaker 6: Hey, I'm doing NaN's John Davin.
Speaker 3: Davin Davin. That's what I thought it was. That's what
Speaker 3: I thought it was, but they wrote it out for
Speaker 3: me fanatically, so of course it's John Davin. Great to
Speaker 3: have you back. Fire Marshall. How are you. We've had
Speaker 3: one of those nights, Fire Marshall here, we've had sort
Speaker 3: of like three alarm fire in the in the show.
Speaker 3: And thanks very much for being available. I know you
Speaker 3: weren't supposed to be with us until eight forty five,
Speaker 3: but I very much appreciate you a flexible What is
Speaker 3: all what's going on with all the these these fires?
Speaker 3: Apparently none of them have been set these these are
Speaker 3: all spontaneous fires, uh, the old spontaneous combustion.
Speaker 6: No. I mean, we've had actually pretty significant fire activity
Speaker 6: in the last probably starting on the weekend. You know,
Speaker 6: as you know, it's very dry out there and we
Speaker 6: don't have any precipitation in the forecast for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 6: So we've had just in the last couple of days,
Speaker 6: we've had actually today we had forty seven fires going
Speaker 6: today and then eighteen of those have been in the
Speaker 6: last twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: So but.
Speaker 3: What I was asking John, is no suggestion that people
Speaker 3: setting these right.
Speaker 6: No, No, what we've what we've been hearing so far
Speaker 6: as folks using lawnmowers. Uh, you know, the end you
Speaker 6: get hot. We've had leaves catch on you know, the
Speaker 6: brush up against the moor catch on fire, and with
Speaker 6: that wind we've had, they just take off. So we've
Speaker 6: had lawnmowers, we've had wood fireplaces and wood stoves. People
Speaker 6: are you know, obviously it's heating season, so folks are
Speaker 6: taking out their ashes from their wood stoves and instead
Speaker 6: of putting them in a metal container with a lid,
Speaker 6: you know, they're dumping them outside and catching the leaves
Speaker 6: and the debris on fire. So we've got a couple
Speaker 6: of those. You know. It's just it's stuff like that.
Speaker 6: We haven't had any any reported arson fires or anything
Speaker 6: like that. It's just been you know, just folks not
Speaker 6: not really paying attention. You know, we've outdoor.
Speaker 3: Fireplaces too, Okay, so it's not spontaneous combustion in terms
Speaker 3: of like sunlight, you know, penetrating through some leaves and
Speaker 3: starting a fire.
Speaker 7: Some people are doing dumb things and uh, and that
Speaker 7: is that's amazing that with all the warnings they have
Speaker 7: heard that they would Oh boy, any idea of the
Speaker 7: acreage at this point that has been burned in totally?
Speaker 6: You said, yeah, we've had probably close to two hundred
Speaker 6: acres burning. Yeah, that includes the fire and Canton. We've
Speaker 6: had Canton holding. We had one out in Berry today
Speaker 6: that was caused by an unintended campfire. We've got a
Speaker 6: big one going in Middleton which is now Middleton North Reading,
Speaker 6: and obviously the big one in Salem over the weekend.
Speaker 6: So it's been very busy and looks like probably the
Speaker 6: rest of the week. We've got our forestry task forces
Speaker 6: going out again tomorrow to help out these communities. So
Speaker 6: we're looking at a busy week for sure.
Speaker 3: Now you have a much better memory of this than
Speaker 3: I do, But I cannot remember this number of contemporaneous
Speaker 3: fires in Massachusetts. Now we've had no rain to speak
Speaker 3: of since September, very dry. Has there ever been a
Speaker 3: situation like this before in your memory within Massachusetts?
Speaker 6: Not that I can remember. I know our our Chief
Speaker 6: Forrest Warden, Dave Soele, you know, he would probably be
Speaker 6: he could probably name a few. But it is it's
Speaker 6: really dry. And you know, now we believes falling and
Speaker 6: you know, everything is it's just bone dry out there
Speaker 6: and any spark, you know, figurette anything like that. So
Speaker 6: that's why we're asking for the public selth and just
Speaker 6: you know, paying attention to your lawnmowers and paying attention,
Speaker 6: you know, try not to use your eye. You know,
Speaker 6: at that time of the year where folks want to, uh,
Speaker 6: you know, let a fire in their chimney or their
Speaker 6: outdoor fireplace and enjoy it. And I and I get that,
Speaker 6: but it's it's just so dry. Out there right now
Speaker 6: that any any the smallest of embers and start one
Speaker 6: of these significant brush fires. So we're just asking folks
Speaker 6: to try to help out your local fire departments. These
Speaker 6: fires taken a tremendous amount of resources to extinguish, so
Speaker 6: it's just been very busy and any help the public
Speaker 6: can give us but much appreciated.
Speaker 3: My understanding, And I've just watched the news like everyone else.
Speaker 3: I'm not a part of the news as I used
Speaker 3: to be, but I understand that there was at least
Speaker 3: one example of loss of life. There was a woman
Speaker 3: I believe in Salem. I thought I read that perished
Speaker 3: in a fire either near or in her home.
Speaker 6: No, that was in That was in Melbury the other
Speaker 6: night on Saturday night. That wasn't. That wasn't related to
Speaker 6: an outdoor fire.
Speaker 3: Okay, So at this point, no loss of life related
Speaker 3: to these outdoor fires.
Speaker 6: No, and thankfully no loss to property either. And you know,
Speaker 6: some of these fires have come pretty close to some
Speaker 6: homes and some significant value properties, and luckily our firefighters
Speaker 6: out there have done a great job and I'm protecting
Speaker 6: those homes. So you know, we're just we're buckling down
Speaker 6: for the rest of the week, and you know, we
Speaker 6: do morning meetings and afternoon meetings and trying to keep
Speaker 6: the fire chiefs updated on the fire behavior and what's
Speaker 6: going on out there, and just asking again for the
Speaker 6: public selp and trying not to be you know, you know,
Speaker 6: use any outdoor fireplaces, make sure you're putting your fireplaces
Speaker 6: in your woodstove, ashes and a metal container with a lid,
Speaker 6: and stuff like that. Anything they can do to help
Speaker 6: us out to e ventuse fires.
Speaker 3: You know, we've seen the fires that were out in
Speaker 3: California a couple of months ago, which literally went up
Speaker 3: and down hillsides and burned, you know, hundreds of homes.
Speaker 3: So to some extent, we're lucky in that it's not
Speaker 3: of that magnitude. But if we don't, if we're not
Speaker 3: more careful, we could have something of that magnitude.
Speaker 6: Oh absolutely, I mean is it is, uh, it's so
Speaker 6: dry out there that it's prime for that type of behavior.
Speaker 6: And again, you know, we just we don't want to
Speaker 6: lose any life, you don't want to lose any property,
Speaker 6: and you know, we just want folks to be smart
Speaker 6: about the outdoor fires. And you know, and again, if
Speaker 6: someone sees smoke in an area or something. Please while
Speaker 6: your local fire department, you know, let them check it out,
Speaker 6: and the sooner we can get out there and get
Speaker 6: on these things, you know, we can prevent them from
Speaker 6: growing to these hundred two hundred acre buyers.
Speaker 3: Last question, and again, when I do these interviews, we
Speaker 3: don't review questions in advance. If I'm asking a question
Speaker 3: that you don't know the answer to, feel free to
Speaker 3: tell me. Are there any efforts to bring other firefighters
Speaker 3: in from other states? I mean, at some point our
Speaker 3: own resources and our own firefighters are going to get
Speaker 3: pretty tired, in some cases exhausted. I know that during
Speaker 3: the hurricanes of this this fall, we send some volunteers
Speaker 3: to other states. Is are there any people that have
Speaker 3: you guys requested any help from other states at this
Speaker 3: point it hasn't been offered.
Speaker 6: No, we haven't requested any help. No, we haven't needed
Speaker 6: any help from any other states at this point. Luckily,
Speaker 6: Massachusetts has a great fire mobilization plan where you know,
Speaker 6: we can put strike teams and task forces together very
Speaker 6: quickly from other areas of the state and move those
Speaker 6: towards the fires. So we've been lucky, you know, Luckily,
Speaker 6: We've got some good fire chiefs on that fire Mobilization team,
Speaker 6: and you know, that's what they've been doing for us
Speaker 6: is just you know, building these task forces and building
Speaker 6: these strike teams and pulling them from other areas of
Speaker 6: the state that aren't affected to these fires and then
Speaker 6: moving them towards towards the east where most of our
Speaker 6: fires have been. And again we've got the National Guard
Speaker 6: out there who's been fantastic when the water drops. You know,
Speaker 6: they've really helped us out a lot with that, so
Speaker 6: we're very appreciated to that. And then obviously are forest
Speaker 6: firefolks at the state level to that out there and
Speaker 6: all these fires and working hard. So it's a great
Speaker 6: team effort. You know, we've got MEMA Department Fire Services,
Speaker 6: the Executive Office of Public Seat and Security. Again we
Speaker 6: meet every morning and you know, kind of figure out
Speaker 6: the logistics all right, who needs help where, and then
Speaker 6: you know we start working on that plan and just repeat,
Speaker 6: rent and repeat the day after day.
Speaker 3: Sounds great, Stay fired, Morshall, John Gavin Davin. John Davin,
Speaker 3: appreciate it so much. You taking the time tonight and
Speaker 3: we hed you up early in the bullpen. You weren't
Speaker 3: doing until a forty five. But thanks for your flexibility
Speaker 3: and get some rest and hopefully we'll get some rain
Speaker 3: in the not too distant future and calm this situation down.
Speaker 3: Appreciate it very much.
Speaker 6: John, I sure hope, so I appreciate it. Dan, thank
Speaker 6: you for having me all right, great touch.
Speaker 3: So when we get back, we will have our fourth
Speaker 3: and final guest, and I believe Dan has been working
Speaker 3: on getting us an ACU weather commentator. Correct me if
Speaker 3: I'm wrong, Dan, feel free to jump in and tell
Speaker 3: me if that's we're working on. That's good. Appreciate, No, appreciate.
Speaker 3: We've you talking with Brian Thompson coming up on the
Speaker 3: other side of this break, and we'll talk about getting
Speaker 3: some relief from all of these fires, and certainly nothing
Speaker 3: would do it as much good as a couple of
Speaker 3: big rainstorms. We'll see what's on the horizon with Brian
Speaker 3: Thompson of ACU Weather back on Nightside right after these messages.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Way live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3: We just spoke with the State Fire Marshal John Davin
Speaker 3: about forty seven brush fires that are in active somewhere
Speaker 3: across Massachusetts. We're delighted to be joined by Brian Thompson
Speaker 3: of ACI Weather. Brian, the questions are so obvious. I'm
Speaker 3: sure that there's nothing I'm going to ask you that's
Speaker 3: going to surprise you. But this is an extraordinary situation
Speaker 3: we find ourselves. And when was the last time we
Speaker 3: had any really measurable rain in Massachusetts?
Speaker 9: It was about two weeks ago. Dan, it was back
Speaker 9: on the thirteenth and fourteenth, we had about a quarter
Speaker 9: of an inch of rain. There's really only been just
Speaker 9: looking at some of the stats here in Boston, I'm sure,
Speaker 9: looking at some of the out sites here, places like Worcestria,
Speaker 9: I mean, there's really only been two rain events of
Speaker 9: any substantial nature here this month, back on October seventh,
Speaker 9: and then from the thirteenth to the fourteenth. Most places
Speaker 9: have barely had two thirds of an inch of rain
Speaker 9: this entire month. And believe it or not, we've actually
Speaker 9: had more rain here that we've had in other parts
Speaker 9: of the Northeast. You get down from New York City Philadelphia,
Speaker 9: they have not had measurable rain at all this month.
Speaker 9: But it has been remarkable just how dry it has
Speaker 9: been The average rainfall for the entire month in Boston
Speaker 9: is a little over four inches, and we are running
Speaker 9: way below that. And if you remember, we got into
Speaker 9: assume at least dry periods during the month of September.
Speaker 9: We only had a little over an inch of rain then,
Speaker 9: so this has been a pretty dry stretch over the
Speaker 9: last six to eight weeks.
Speaker 3: Well, I remember down in the Cape, and I believe
Speaker 3: it was in either late August maybe early September, there
Speaker 3: was a torrential rain about eight inches. That was one
Speaker 3: incredible rainstorm. Am I correct in remembering that to be
Speaker 3: like late it was sometime in mid to late August.
Speaker 9: Yeah, actually, it may have been mid to late September.
Speaker 9: Just looking back here, I see some some rainfall totals
Speaker 9: of three to five inches places like Hynis out of
Speaker 9: Provincetown too. That was that was a fire call. Correctly,
Speaker 9: a very localized event.
Speaker 3: So there was some yes, yes, yes, yes, absolutely right
Speaker 3: there back, Yeah, yeah, there was, but that doesn't help,
Speaker 3: that doesn't Yeah, that doesn't help other parts of the state.
Speaker 9: No, and the farther west you went with that events,
Speaker 9: Certainly it was not as impressive of a rainfall event.
Speaker 9: It was like I said, very localized, and since then,
Speaker 9: over the past four weeks, we just really haven't added
Speaker 9: on much to it. And the additional problem is, naturally,
Speaker 9: now that we're heading into late we're at the end
Speaker 9: of October, we have a lot of the leaves that
Speaker 9: have fallen off the trees, just kind of adding to
Speaker 9: the fuel for some of these fires when they do start,
Speaker 9: and if you get any wind events, these fires can
Speaker 9: spread relatively quickly if they develop.
Speaker 3: What's the next week or so looking like I watched
Speaker 3: some of the weather forecast TV weather forecast tonight, and
Speaker 3: I know there's some suggestion. I think Wednesday into Thursday
Speaker 3: they might be a little bit of rain, but there's
Speaker 3: nothing huge in the horizon.
Speaker 9: Correct, Yeah, I think certainly this week we will have
Speaker 9: a couple of chances. Here might actually be a chance
Speaker 9: here Tomorrow night into Wednesday morning, there's going to be
Speaker 9: a warm front pushing on through. After that, it's going
Speaker 9: to get pretty warm, but we'll dry out for a
Speaker 9: few days. We have another chance with a cold front
Speaker 9: coming on Friday, and then potentially as we head into
Speaker 9: the first full week of November next week, there's at
Speaker 9: least some storm systems on the weather map. It's not
Speaker 9: a guarantee they'll move across our area bring us some rain,
Speaker 9: but they're at least going to be closer to us,
Speaker 9: which over the last couple of weeks really hasn't there
Speaker 9: really hasn't been much in the cards at all, just
Speaker 9: simply because of just the dominant high pressure that's been
Speaker 9: over us for most of the last two weeks. So
Speaker 9: at least we're getting into a period pattern where there
Speaker 9: will be some opportunities to pick up some rain, although
Speaker 9: through the rest of this week I think most of
Speaker 9: the rain that we see is going to.
Speaker 3: Be on a light side.
Speaker 9: This first event here Tuesday night Tomorrow night into Wednesday morning,
Speaker 9: probably not much more than a tenth of an inch,
Speaker 9: maybe two tenths of an inch, But we'll take what
Speaker 9: week and get. At this point, we haven't had any
Speaker 9: rain really in the last two weeks, so anything will
Speaker 9: help at this point.
Speaker 3: And just refreshment, recollection. You may have mentioned this already,
Speaker 3: but obviously we've had hardly any rain here in October. Normally,
Speaker 3: what do we get, you know, on average across Massachusetts
Speaker 3: during the month of October, how many inches?
Speaker 9: It's usually a little round or just a little above
Speaker 9: four inches of rain, so we're running a good bit
Speaker 9: below that. Obviously, October can be a dry month, but
Speaker 9: sometimes sometimes that average number is influenced by some tropical systems.
Speaker 9: We can still get pieces of in October. That's more
Speaker 9: usually more of a September thing, but sometimes still in
Speaker 9: October we can get some tropical moisture coming in. But
Speaker 9: we just haven't had any of that. Like I said,
Speaker 9: high pressure has been kind of controlling the weather here
Speaker 9: of the last couple of weeks, and that's just been
Speaker 9: deflecting any chances of rain well away from us.
Speaker 3: I remember one Halloween, I forget what year it was,
Speaker 3: we had a pretty good sized snowstorm one Halloween, and
Speaker 3: then for the rest of the winter, I don't think
Speaker 3: we had a really measurable snow event. Do you recall
Speaker 3: this's gotta be like maybe ten, twelve, fifteen years ago.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I don't recall offhand to what year, But we
Speaker 9: have had storms in October. We've had them around Halloween
Speaker 9: that have brought significant snow, and that always adds an
Speaker 9: extra layer of concern because when you have snowfall, and
Speaker 9: it's usually a very wet snow when it falls in
Speaker 9: October on on trees that have still a lot of
Speaker 9: leaves on them. That can cause a lot of problems,
Speaker 9: can cause widespread power outages. I do recall a storm again,
Speaker 9: it was several years ago, probably five to ten years ago,
Speaker 9: that caused all sorts of power outages across So.
Speaker 3: It was a real it was a real snowstorm. And
Speaker 3: I also remember in nineteen ninety one, and the reason
Speaker 3: I remember that is our daughter had been born earlier
Speaker 3: that month, and that was the year of the Perfect Storm,
Speaker 3: the big movie that there was such a box office
Speaker 3: hit where we had that nor'easter come in late October,
Speaker 3: so we could use something like that, maybe not quite
Speaker 3: as bad as that, but something. Brian, thank you so much.
Speaker 3: We came up one short of one guest tonight, so
Speaker 3: we got you up in the bullpen and carry the
Speaker 3: baseball analogy. You did a great job for us. Thank
Speaker 3: you so much. Okay, yep, thanks Dan, have a good night.
Speaker 3: All right, you too. All right, we come back. We're
Speaker 3: going to go first of all, when we come back,
Speaker 3: we're going to give you a chance. Immediately after the news,
Speaker 3: I'll give you a special number to call, and if
Speaker 3: you call on number, ten, you're going to win a
Speaker 3: couple of tickets to see Celtic Thunder at the Premier
Speaker 3: Theater at Foxwoods on November seventh. If you want them now,
Speaker 3: don't take them if you're not going to use them.
Speaker 3: But we'll talk about that on the other side of
Speaker 3: the nine o'clock news, and we will also on the
Speaker 3: other side of the nine o'clock news get to our
Speaker 3: regularly program. So we're going to talk about this horrific murder,
Speaker 3: this horrific road murder. It really was rage and then
Speaker 3: it wasn't road rage. And we hope to talk with
Speaker 3: District Attorney Pluffick Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz about
Speaker 3: this really horrible, horrible event. We'll explain