Recent warm and windy weather resulted in a busy stretch for local firefighters.
At about 12:30 p.m. Saturday, four trucks and eight firefighters from the Houston Rural Fire Department responded to a blaze at a residence on Morton Road. Houston Rural Chief Don Gaston said the fire appeared to have started in an empty lot adjacent to the residence before spreading to an outbuilding and then engulfing the house.
The home was owned by Ronnie Gaston and occupied by his son Roman Gaston. It was a total loss.
“We didn’t have a chance,” Don Gaston said. “I’m pretty sure we could have done something about it if he would have called it in quicker, but the whole back of the house was on fire when we got there.”
Don Gaston said people should be aware that doing things in dry, windy conditions like burning leaves or mowing a lawn and hitting a rock and causing a spark can easily lead to fires.
“People just need to be careful and wait until it’s safe,” he said.
Saturday evening, two Houston Rural trucks and seven firefighters responded to a brush fire on U.S. 63 across from Northside Baptist Church north of Houston. Another six personnel and two trucks went back to the same location Sunday morning after high winds had fanned logs enough to rekindle the blaze.
Houston Rural personnel responded again just after 1 p.m. Monday to a field fire alongside Highway 17 east of Faith Fellowship in Bucyrus. Gaston said the blaze originated right next to the roadway and was obviously started by a smoker.
“It began from a cigarette flipped from a vehicle,” he said. “There were some trailer homes nearby, and it’s a good thing the wind wasn’t blowing the other direction, because it could have gotten really bad.”