Firefighters battle brush, grass fires

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March 24, 2009

BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL The Commercial-News Tue Mar 24, 2009, 11:11 PM CDT

DANVILLE — Rural fire departments could almost consider it a natural season, coming between winter and spring: Brush and grass fire season.

Each year like clockwork, the area fire protection districts are sent on a barrage of calls as brush fires get out of control and eat up acres of land in Vermilion County.

Lynch Fire Protection District is one of six departments in Vermilion County that have a brush truck. Chief Scott Weidig estimates the department will have logged 100 or more grass and brush fire calls both in and outside the Lynch district.

And he said there’s one common factor in almost all of them — lack of common sense. People will use fires to get rid of yard waste or other things and let the blazes get to large to handle or leave them unattended.

“You’ve got to be sensible about it,” he said. “Light a smaller fire that you can control.”

Tools to help control the fires can be as simple as a garden hose or bucket of water and a rake.

Brush fire season has already run about two weeks for local fire departments, including Bismarck where Chief Doug Hardy believes the department has been called out each day to either handle a brush fire or provide mutual aid for another fire protection district.

“It’s not so bad during the week because people are working,” he said “But you can almost guarantee the weekend is going to be rough.”

And the fires are not exactly small, either. Reported grass and brush fires so far this season have enveloped almost 50 acres in one case. Anther fire reported along Henning Road damaged an older tractor, a truck and some lumber.

Other departments that feature brush trucks in their arsenals include Georgetown, Tilton, Kickapoo and Bluegrass areas.

To the passing motorist, a grass or brush fire may seem less dangerous compared to a blaze that has consumed a home. But for those who have been out there first-hand, it’s a different point of view.

“A house fire is so much more concentrated,” Hardy said, compared to a field fire that can be located as much as a half-mile from the fire truck and spread over a number of acres. Oftentimes firefighters will hike to the flames carrying a a water tank on their back to handle the flames.

Rural areas also provide a factor not as prevalent along city streets: wind.

“With the wind fueling it, it goes pretty fast,” Weidig said.

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