Brush fire near Utica was about a mile long

It was a long hike for Utica Firefighters called to a brush fire. The fire burned about 50 acres of brush Sunday evening east of the village on the north side of the I and M Canal.

Fire Chief Ben Brown says someone living nearby smelled smoke and reported the fire just before 7pm.  Brown says they couldn’t get a tanker to the fire so they had to carry water in backpacks. The fire was out by 8:40pm.  It’s not clear what started the fire.