Firefighters had to lay several hundred feet of hose Wednesday night to battle a brush fire along the Neponset River in Lower Mills.

The brush fire, reported around 7:15 p.m., consumed brush behind Ventua Street, took firefighters from six engine companies, two ladder companies and two specialized brush-fire units, the Boston Fire Department reports.

Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald reports firefighters found it "unreal" to be fighting a brush fire in February.

"I am not a meteorologist but I would think the lack of snow cannot be good for the water supply or our landscape," he said.