READING, Pa. – Record high temperatures Tuesday brought people outside across Berks County.
Near the Reading Public Museum, families filled the park.
“It’s beautiful outside,” said Chelsea Fernandez of Reading.
Fernandez was walking with her baby daughter Amira. After a long winter, she said days like Tuesday feel overdue.
“It was really cold. Yeah, I didn’t really like it at all,” Fernandez said of the winter.
Others were out with their dogs, enjoying the sunshine.
“It’s been like almost three months we’ve been inside. We haven’t got out,” said Lucky Padin of Reading.
While people enjoyed the weather, though, firefighters were busy.
Crews responded to several brush fires across the region, including one in Birdsboro.
“This is like the third one today. We had two yesterday,” said Chief Richard Fix of the Gibraltar Fire Co.
Officials say warm temperatures, dry brush and wind can quickly turn small fires into big problems.
“People clean up, try to burn their debris, and they don’t realize how dry it is with the low humidity and how quick the wind takes things away,” Fix said. “So it was just a homeowner accident.”
Firefighters’ message is simple: Be careful with outdoor burning, grills or anything that could spark a fire.
“This time of year, when it’s so dry and low humidity and just a little bit of wind, you have to really have it contained within a closed-off area or a cleaned-off area that there’s no chance for it to spread to the woods,” Fix said.