Published: March 18, 2009 02:50 pm      

Trash fire blows out of control

Fire spreads through 200 acres of hilly terrain

Fire crews from Georgetown, Royal Center and Logansport were called to a trash fire that blew out of control Tuesday afternoon near 400W and U.S. 24.

Logansport Fire Capt. Chris Cover reported the blaze spread to nearly 200 acres of hilly terrain, including some wooded areas and dense brush before being extinguished.

“We got the call at 1:30, and we went to another fire after that,” Cover said. “In total, it took about three hours to put out. It wasn’t easy.”

LFD ladderman Rick Bair, who was on the scene, said the fire spread quickly across very dry ground.

“The field was on fire mostly, but it jumped the fence and went into the woods,” Bair said. “It is so hilly here you can’t get much access to it, so we called Georgetown and Royal Center to get their grass trucks here.”

The fire reportedly spread from a controlled burn of trash and grass cuttings at the back of a residence at 4018 W. U.S. 24.

Cover said the department received a call from the property owner and found him fighting the fire by himself when they arrived.

Donald Hatton said his wife called him at work about the fire. He said a large gust of wind from the south re-ignited a small controlled fire that his wife had set earlier in the day and thought was extinguished.

“She thought it was out, but the wind picked up and away it went,” Hatton said.

Cover said fire crews found reaching burning areas difficult.

“We couldn’t get trucks into the area so the guys had to use the fire brooms,” Cover said. “They used the brooms to stomp the fire out.”

He added that water from Logansport’s 2,500-gallon and Georgetown’s 3,500-gallon trucks was enough to extinguish the fire.

“We didn’t have to shuttle water,” he said.

Mike McGovern, a volunteer Royal Center firefighter, and the owner of a Royal Center tavern, said he was preparing for St. Patrick’s Day festivities when he got the fire call about 3:30 p.m.

After assisting with extinguishing the fire, McGovern and other Royal Center crew members continued to check for hot spots on the hills to make sure the fire would not re-ignite and spread to the adjacent woods.

He advised area residents against controlled burns at this time of year.

“People think they can burn off stuff but the ground is too dry, it keeps getting away from them,” McGovern said. “It is a bad day to be burning stuff off especially with the woods and trees right there.”

Logansport firefighters responded to three other grass fires Tuesday, and Cover urged the public to watch weather conditions before burning anything in the county.

“The ground is still dead from the winter,” Cover said. “The ground hasn’t had the moisture to be green yet. The rain that we had last week was so heavy that it just ran off.”

He urged residents to check the weather conditions.

“Today was a windy day,” he said. “When burning, you need to stay with the fire to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand and to keep an eye on the wind.”

Kevin Smith can be contacted at (574) 732-5148 or via e-mail at kevin.smith@pharostribune.com