Large grassfire exposes dump site dangers

This is a view of the burned-out property, including the roadside, on FM 542 in Oakwood. photo by Melissa Missildine The quiet Sunday afternoon was shattered by the screeching of sirens from Oakwood's Volunteer Fire Dept., followed shortly by the Flo Volunteer Fire Dept. Out FM 542, just outside the Oakwood city limits but just shy of St. Paul, Timothy White had put in a call for help. White has lived on his property for about ten years. According to Mr. White, he mulled it over for a while before he made a decision to burn some trash. "Something told me I shouldn't do it but I thought it would be okay because I was here to watch it. I made the fire right over there,” (pointing to a burnedout section of his property.) “I made sure it was at least 200 yards from the house. I had my water hose on and I was watching it. I tried to keep it under control but it just got away from me," White said. When asked about his condition, Mr. White said, "I'm okay. I didn't get burned or anything. I'm just sitting down to rest. I was taking a little break."

Mark Smith checks the water level in Oakwood VFD’s brand new tanker truck. photo by Melissa Missildine Sheri Smith, volunteer with the Oakwood VFD, said that this was not the first time they have responded to this property for a grass fire. She added that this, however, was the worst fire at the location. Due to the drought situation, the fire spread and quickly engulfed an area over several acres back into the property, extending out through the fence line, and out to the roadside. Smith commented on the difficulty the responders had in getting to the fire because of the vast amount of debris at this location. It was discovered that this location has been used as a dump site for large and unwanted items for many years. Smith also acknowledged that it was very dangerous to work in an area like this because they had no way of knowing what kinds of chemical reactions might be possible from the freon and other chemicals that might be present in the old appliances and the danger of getting injured on the debris itself. An old oxygen tank was found standing in one portion of the fire. Had any oxygen been left, it could have blown up and been the equivalent of a bomb. Fortunately, the fire was put out quickly despite the difficulties and without injury. With the assistance of the Flo Volunteer Fire Dept, they were able to keep the fire away from White’s home as well.

Smith stated, "We are just really glad that we've got our new tanker truck. We just finished building it, from scratch, two weeks ago. This has helped us a lot. We won't have to make as many trips to fill up now." The trucks were only sent back once to refill during this incident. When asked about the small fires burning in various areas of the property Mrs. Smith said, "This fire was so big that it will probably burn for days. Those little hot spots will keep flaring up. Normally we wouldn't worry about it and we let them burn themselves out but, it's too dry so we are going to try to make sure they are all out before we go."