Published: March 18, 2007 08:42 am      

Open burns lead to brush fires

Area firefighters remind residents to use caution

Area fire departments say they’ve fought several large brush fires in the last couple of weeks because some Clark and Floyd County residents seem to be forgetting that open burning in some areas is prohibited an comes with several restrictions in others.

Firefighters say a dry top layer of soil, low humidity and dead vegetation can equal disaster this time of year when someone decides to strike a match.

The Lafayette Township Volunteer Fire Department — with the help of Georgetown and Greenville’s Volunteer Fire Departments — on Tuesday afternoon fought a 5-acre brush fire along the 2900 block of Edwardsville-Galena Road that took more than 30 firefighters and two hours to contain.

“Someone was burning a pile of rubbish — stuff they should have thrown in a Dumpster,” said Chief Jeremy Klein with

the Lafayette Township Fire Department in Floyd Knobs. “And with the little bit of wind we had, it didn’t take a lot to spread rapidly.”

Klein went on to say that these types of fires are extremely common in the weeks before spring.

“Until stuff starts to green-up, we’ll have a pretty good number of brush fires,” he said. “With the warmer, windier days we’ve had recently, the top layer of soil dries out. People get out in the yard and start picking up sticks and leaves. They burn all that, and the next thing you know, a little pile of leaves and sticks turns into an entire field (of dead vegetation) on fire.”

Klein also said these brush fires are difficult to fight because — despite a dry top layer — the soil underneath is still very wet from winter’s precipitation. They must be fought by hand, as the fire trucks will often sink if driven into a field.

In their efforts to fight the fire along Edwardsville-Galena Road, three fire trucks ended up stuck in mud. Firefighters had to walk around the perimeter of the fire using backpacks full of water and a hand-pump sprayers.

“We don’t try to put the fire out,” Klein said of the method of fighting brush fires. “We cut a line around the fire and remove the fuel — leaves sticks and debris. We cut out a 6-foot area all the way around it, and once it hits that, it stops because there is (no more dead vegetation) to burn.”

Firefighters later go back and put out any logs or tree stumps that are still burning.

Klein said his volunteer firefighters fought a 3-acre fire March 9 along 2900 block of Spickert Knob Road. That brush fire started when someone was burning trash and yard waste in a barn barrel outside.

Klein said no structures were destroyed in either fire and no homes had to be evacuated.

Jimmy McConahay with the Monroe Township Volunteer Fire Department said firefighters have fought several Clark County brush fires in the last two weeks. He said they fought three brush fires on Tuesday — one along Mountain Grove Road, another near Wildwood Drive and a third behind Woodlands Lodge — and another three fires on March 11 — one off Station Road and two others in Scott County.

He said many of them ranged from 2 to 4 acres and had similar causes to the fires in Floyd County.

“People just don’t use their heads, and this is what happens,” McConahay said.

He and Chief Jamey Noel with the New Chapel Volunteer Fire Department in Floyd County said Charlestown had several recent brush fires, but phone calls placed to its department were not returned.