Hot weather leads to grass fires

A wildfire burns a forest.

The spell of hot, dry weather that has held the area in its grasp for the last few few weeks is taking its toll on grasslands and fire fighters.
In the wake of 15- and 25-mph winds, Saturday, in the wake of 15- and 25-mph winds and had a high temperature of 99 degrees. Fire protection agencies from across the area responded to 16 calls.
At the largest of these, a 25-acre grass fire on Peabody Road, north of Prathersville and west of Route 19, paramedics treated on site at least five of 35 fire fighters for heat exhaustion, county fire chief Debra Schuster said.
Three more of the heavily -clad fire fighters were hospitalized for heat exhaustion, and two of those were flown to Springfield Hospital by helicopter. All were treated for about one1 hour and released.
Dennis Sapp, fire captain of station no. 1, said the blaze at Peabody Road, which burned out of control for an hour before it was contained, probably was started by a trash fire. The blaze endangered a nearby barn and surrounding farmland and the barn on it, but was extinguished before anything but grass was burned.
Schuster said fires like the one on Peabody Road had been starting were being started all day, especially in the northern part of the city and county. Schuster said some of the fires could have been the work of an arsonist, but careless burning was is a more likely cause.
“We don’t have any evidence there is an arsonist,” Schuster said. “We sure hope we don’t have someone running around starting fires on purpose, but there is that possibility.”

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