Personnel from the Houston Rural Fire Department responded at about 3 p.m. on Wednesday of last week to hay bales burning on Highway ZZ west of Houston, about 1.5 miles off Highway 17.
Houston Rural Fire Chief Don Gaston said the fire began when bulldozed piles were burned and flames spread to the nearby bales on property owned by Chad Smith. About 40 bales burned, but about 60 more were spared thanks to work done by Smith and the firefighters.
“He would have lost every bale there, but he had a track-loader and cut us a groove between them and we put water on the rest of them,” Gaston said. “He stayed all night that night and pushed them up in a pile where he could work with them.”
Gaston said three trucks and seven personnel responded on the sultry summer afternoon.
“It was terribly hot,” Gaston said. “We had trouble making ourselves sweat.”
On Monday of last week, Houston Rural sent two trucks and four firefighters to a blaze at a large mobile home on Ridge Road east of Houston.
Gaston said the fire was contained to a closet, and the residence sustained mostly only smoke damage.
“When the call came in I thought, ‘oh man, a trailer house; it’ll be burned down before we get there,” he said. “But we got on it pretty quick and got it out before it spread.”
How the fire started inside the closet isn’t known, Gaston said.
The following fires also involved responses from area fire departments:
•Firefighters from Summersville and Clear Springs were called mid-afternoon last Friday to a structure fire on Highway JJ. A shed, tree and utility line were on fire at the end of the roadway, authorities said.
•Licking’s fire department battled a fire last Wednesday afternoon that involved wood at the Royal Oak charcoal plant. Three different calls for additional assistance went out — the latest at about 12:45 p.m. amid blistering heat.