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NEWS
Fire a reminder of spring brush season
Corey Kincaid of the Barboursville Volunteer Fire Dept. uses a leaf blower to control a brush fire which burned up at least two acres of hillside at 2578 Tom's Creek Road on Sunday, March 7, 2010, in Cabell County.
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ONA -- West Virginia forest ranger Alan Sowards didn't have to drive far to find a great lesson in what not to do during spring fire season.
Sunday afternoon, Sowards and a team of about a dozen firefighters from the Barboursville Volunteer Fire Department were climbing up a steep hillside at 2578 Tom's Creek Road, just a few miles south of the Huntington Mall, beating back an back-yard trash fire that jumped a concrete block barricade and blackened a couple acres of hillside before being contained.
That brush fire was just one of a dozen or so that peppered the Tri-State on Sunday as a volunteer firefighters from around the region hit the hills to battle small blazes, including a breakout of three fires along County Road 31 in Lawrence County late Sunday afternoon.
Just in Lawrence County, brush fires popped up throughout the afternoon with ones on County Road, 14, County Road 48, Ohio 217, County Road 64 -- and then the three small fires on Big Branch (County Road 31).
"Up until this weekend, we've had snow, but it only takes a day or two of sun, and you have burning conditions," Sowards said.
Dave Perry, who owns the land, said he got a call from Christy Ward, who is renting a trailer on the land, that a trash fire out back got caught by the breeze and was skirting up the hillside.
"It was spreading up the hill, and the wind caught it, and it was going all the way up the hill," said Perry, who got there about 15 minutes after it started.
Armed with leaf blowers and rakes, firefighters were able to blow and dig a fire line that stopped the blaze from eating the dry leaves that fuel a blaze.
Paul Hockenberry of the Barboursville Volunteer Fire Department said Ward's 10-year-old son received a minor burn on his hand and was driven to the hospital by his mom.
Sowards said the incident is a good reminder to people that spring fire season is here. Began on March 1, the fire season outdoor-burning restrictions will be in effect through May 31. Between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., no outdoor burning is permitted.
Year-round requirements for burning outdoors include the following:
A safety strip of at least 10 feet must be placed around burning materials. To prevent wayward sparks from igniting a forest fire, the strip must be cleared down to the mineral soil.
Fires must be attended at all times and cannot be unattended until fully extinguished.
A violation of any outdoor-burning restrictions may result in a misdemeanor charge, a fine of up to $300 and liability for costs of fighting the fire and the damage caused by the fire to property.
Sowards said fines can go up to $300 and that residents will also be billed when a local volunteer fire department is called to their property for a brush fire.
For more info on spring fire season, go online at www.wvforestry.com.
