Thursday, June 21, 2012

Carelessly caused fires a hardship on firefighters

BY LINDSAY MCCOY
Times Bulletin News Writer
lmccoy@timesbulletin.com

VAN WERT - Van Wert County remains locked in drought conditions with no meaningful precipitation over the spring, and little to none expected in the foreseeable future. With the dry conditions the risk of fires has greatly increased with each passing day.
The county has already experienced some of these widespread fires due to the dry conditions. On Wednesday, a field fire broke out near the intersection of U.S. 224 and Pancake Rd. Fire damage spread from the roadside throughout much of the unharvested wheat field. Firefighters from both Wren and Willshire fire departments rushed to the scene to extinguish the flames.
Along the borders of the fire were two homes and a corn field, any of which could have been easily subject to the flames due to the high winds had the departments not responded immediately. Thick smoke blowing across the road left traffic at a standstill for nearly 20 minutes until visibility returned.
While the cause of the fire still remains under investigation, Willshire Fire Chief Dwight Sheets speculated that the fire probably originated in the side ditch from a discarded cigarette, but a clear cause may never be found.
“These small fires take away from our responders' normal jobs and from the department's usual responsibilities,” said Sheets about the recent field fire. “Basically, people should halt all burning activity whether it is burning trash or cooking on a charcoal grill versus a burning pit.”
With such dry conditions, even farm equipment such as balers can cause a small spark and ignite a fire. Sheets, who is also the representative for the county fire chiefs, noted that these small fires have not been too bad yet in Van Wert County, but that Mercer County recently saw between six and seven of these fires just in a matter of hours.
However, fires in the county have been increasing over the past week. Last Saturday, the east side of Van Wert County experienced a grass fire on this side of the road. Later that same night, the Ohio City Fire Department responded to an unwatched campfire left burning. The department extinguished the fire before any damage was done.
On Tuesday, a grass fire broke out east of Willshire, and the next day a second fire broke out on Rader Rd. A township worker was able to put out that blaze with an extinguisher, but the Middle Point Fire Department still responded to make sure it would not reignite.
The National Weather Service released a statement on their website which said, “Chances for any needed rainfall looks minimal through the period as a dry airmass settles in Indiana. This will leave the area in No Man’s Land with dry conditions anticipated.”
With these fire accidents in Van Wert County increasing just within the past week, Van Wert County Emergency Management Director Rick McCoy is wary that fires will continue to break out with dry conditions worsening throughout the area. McCoy also noted that he has never experienced the National Weather Service using such drastic language as no man’s land.
Earlier this week, McCoy consulted with the county commissioners about a possible county-wide burning ban as more than half of Indiana counties have already adopted, including Allen and Adams counties which border Van Wert County at the state line. While no county-wide ban was enacted, county officials and local fire chiefs are monitoring the situation carefully, and fire crews will be on the job continuing to attempt to stop any carelessly caused blaze from causing major damage.

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