Area fire danger increasing

Discussion

July 6, 2012

Area fire danger increasing

By BRAD KELLAR CNHI The Herald-Banner Fri Jul 06, 2012, 10:13 AM CDT

GREENVILLE — Hunt County’s fire departments continued to deal Thursday with an assortment of grass and brush fires, as local drought conditions continue to worsen.

Many of the blazes have required multiple fire departments to work together to extingish the flames, including a large fire which threatened a residential community near Greenville.

At least some of the fires this week have been started by the use of fireworks, including a handful of small fires which were ignited as a result of the display at the end of Wednesday night’s City of Greenville Patriotic Picnic.

Although conditions would seem to call for the enactment of a ban on outdoor burning, local fire officials are hoping a chance of rain in the forecast for early next week may help delay the need for a ban.

Units from the Campbell, Greenville, Cash, Lone Oak and Commerce fire departments responded at around noon Thursday to a brush fire near the Timberglen Mobile Home Park in the Ardis Heights area just outside of Greenville. The fire covered approximately 14 acres and came close to more than one of the homes in the park before being contained.

The Merit and Caddo Mills fire departments responded during the afternoon to a fire on County Road 1114.

“That one was started by fireworks,” said Hunt County Fire Marshal Richard Hill.

Several other, smaller fires were reported during the day, as the high temperature again rose into the upper 90s Thursday.

Guidelines call for instituting or maintaining a burn ban whenever a county’s average readings under the Keetch-Byram Drought Index reach 475 or higher. Hunt County has not been under a ban on outdoor burning since November.

The Keetch-Byram Drought Index measures soil moisture. A reading of 000 indicates soil saturation, while a reading of 800 is the highest on the scale, meaning that it would take eight or more inches of rainfall to bring the soil to saturation.

As of Thursday afternoon, readings under the index in Hunt County ranged from 470 to 677, with a countywide average of 579.

Hill said he had considered asking the Hunt County Commissioners Court for the implementation of a burn ban, but noted how the National Weather Service forecast as of Thursday was calling for chances of rain both during the day Saturday and Sunday through Tuesday of next week.

“You don’t want to put a burn ban on for two weeks and then take it off,” Hill said.

The fireworks show which served as the finale of Wednesday night's Patriotic Picnic was impressive visually, but apparently was also responsible for setting off multiple fires near the Greenville SportsPark.

"We had a couple different fires from the fireworks show," said Toby McNellis with the Greenville Fire Department. "Fallout from the fireworks is what started it."

One of the fires began behind the pond at the SportsPark, another in a hay field along Monty Stratton Parkway.

"We had about four different fires," McNellis said, adding there were no injuries from the blazes. "We didn't lose any hay bales or anything. It was just fallout. In fact I was in the truck, trying to put out one of the fires, and we had fallout landing in the truck."