As the Hawthorne Fire continues to burn into its twelfth day, crews remain on scene in Berlin using new equipment to help them battle the flames.

This comes as the state sees more fires spark up due to the current dry weather.

As crews from all over the state and the country continue to fight the Hawthorne Fire in Berlin, officials say they’re holding steady with limited fire growth.

The fire is now burning at 127 acres. Firefighters are focusing on tackling hot spots in the southeast part of Lamentation Mountain. They’re using drones with infrared cameras to help.

“If we do it in the morning and in the evening before sunrise and after sunset, we get a better interpretation of what the actual fire or the spot fires are on the area,” Bill Perkins with the Connecticut Incident Management Team said.

They say this technology has already helped crews on the ground.

“Those red dots that we see on that camera become less and less and for us, that’s a good thing,” Perkins said.

The dry weather across the state has sparked other brush fires, including one in Roxbury which caused roads to be shut down in the area.

In Bristol, smoke could be seen in town as firefighters battled a fire that sparked up again in the area of Mountain Road.

Those are some of the fires the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) said it’s monitoring.

“That’s a thing for our firefighters to be aware for rapid spread rates of fire and extreme fire behavior,” Rich Schenk, fire control officer for DEEP, said.

With a red flag warning in effect Friday, state officials say conditions were ripe for fires to start.

“Fire growth and the probability of something igniting is at an extreme level so that’s why we are super concerned,” Josh Cingranelli with the Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security said.

They’re urging people across the state to take precautions such as clearing out leaf piles.

“Use a leaf blower. Get those leaves away from your house in case something does ignite. Then it’s not right up against your house,” Cingranelli said.

Fire officials are urging people to follow the burn bans to keep other fires from potentially happening.

With less than a week until Election Day and 10 days into early voting, hundreds of thousands of Connecticut residents have already cast their ballots.

For the first time, Connecticut residents can vote early. Early voting started on Oct. 21, and as of Tuesday night, more than 430,000 ballots have been cast, according to the Secretary of the State’s office. West Hartford has the most people voting early with 10,207 ballots cast, followed by Norwalk with 9,690 and Stamford with 9,511. Fairfield and Milford also have strong participation in early voting, with 9,453 and 8,766 votes.

Most early voters are registered Democrats, with 112 towns showing Democratic majorities among early voters. In comparison, 57 towns have the most early voters as unaffiliated, and 14 towns lean Republican. 

Voter registration in Connecticut is concentrated in the state’s biggest cities. Stamford leads with 76,418 registered voters, followed by Bridgeport with 71,382 and Hartford with 64,244. Norwalk and New Haven complete the top five, with 58,085 and 57,551 registered voters, respectively. 

Certain towns stand out for their high turnout relative to registered voters. Sharon leads with 37.8% of registered voters casting ballots early, followed by Salisbury at 37.1% and Woodbury at 34.9%. Madison, Clinton and several others show over 30% early voting participation.

Other cities show low early voting turnout relative to their registered voters. Hartford leads in low participation, with only 5.8% of registered voters casting ballots early. Waterbury follows with 6.9%, and New Haven with 7.9%. Bridgeport and New Britain have 8% and 10.1% early voting rates, respectively.

Check the Connecticut Voter Guide 2024 for more information on the elections.

In an era of budget cuts and restructuring, college administrators in Connecticut claim to be doing everything they can to help keep schools afloat. State leaders announced they will be initiating an audit of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system and its chancellor, Terrence Cheng, after reports of controversial spending decisions he is said to have made. Before Cheng took the post with the CSCU, he was the campus director of UConn Stamford, a position he held from 2016 through 2021. 

“The tone-deaf champagne tastes of Chancellor Cheng are not a good look for the chancellor or for the CSCU system,” state senator Stephen Harding said to the press. 

Cheng oversees the CSCU system, which comprises the four state universities (Eastern, Southern, Western, and Central), Charter Oak State College Online, and the 12 community and technical colleges, which are in the midst of consolidation. Although CSCU is a separate body from the University of Connecticut, certain decisions in procurement, interoperability agreements and finances are shared between that system and UConn. 

Using documents and information obtained from a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request, reporters at the Stamford Advocate published a detail on Cheng’s purchases – including hundreds of dollars in meals and chauffeur services from his home in Westchester, N.Y. As part of his contract with the state, Cheng was provided a state vehicle and a $71,000 stipend with the expectation he would move to Connecticut. He’s also provided $25,000 annually for “housing and entertainment expenses.” 

So far, he’s been renting an apartment in Hartford – but he doesn’t use it all the time. The report says that a recent interview indicates that he still uses his New York residence as his primary address. 

“I believe myself and others feel he should be here in the state of Connecticut,” said Richard Balducci, a member of the Board of Regents, the group that oversees CSCU and works with the state, in the Stamford Advocate report. At UConn, the Board of Trustees would be the equivalent body. 

Governor Ned Lamont announced on Oct. 25 that the state comptroller’s office would initiate an independent audit on CSCU’s financial management and hopes a comprehensive review can be furnished. His announcement said the main purpose of the inquiry would be to “assess whether public funds have been managed in accordance with state financial policies and in alignment with the educational mission of the CSCU system,” with itemized purchases and review of meals and vehicle usage part of the request. 

Earlier this year, Cheng was lambasted by the leadership of Eastern State Connecticut University through a vote of no confidence. According to the ESCU senate’s statement as reported on by the CT Mirror, they believe the CSCU system has been mismanaged under Cheng’s direction. 

Adam Joseph, vice chancellor for external affairs at CSCU, said at the time to the CT Mirror that “administrators recognize the uncertainty faculty at all levels are feeling.” 

The merger of the state’s community colleges into one institution, originally devised as a way for CSCU to save money during former system president Mark Ojakian’s tenure, was handed off to Cheng and resulted in over 100 layoffs and various internal changes at the 12 campuses, according to reporting by the Norwalk Hour and Connecticut Post. 

Any information contained in the state comptroller’s investigation into CSCU will be made public. No changes to Cheng’s position or current allowances are planned, but he said in a statement to the Stamford Advocate that he is looking to improve. 

“This is one of those moments, right, where you learn as you’re doing your job,” Cheng said.