Monthly Archives: April 2019

Spring Cleaning Leaf Burning at Mom`s March 23rd

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This year we had a nice low wind day on March 23rd…since I was going to be in Arkansas rockhunting the following weekend, I took advantage of the weather and decided to burn the 2.5 acres of leaves at Mom`s. I wasn`t sure if I was going to have help or not, next door neighbor Jerry was recovering from some type of virus and unavailable, but Mom was able to call our good family friend Leon to come and help me burn….I had used to leaf blower to create sections just in case I had to burn by myself, so Leon and I went ahead and burned it like that and it worked out just fine. We started out up on top of the hill where it always burns in spots for some reason, leaves are thinner up there for one thing….

 

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It took about 30 minutes to burn off the first section and once we got the second section going, we were able to go back and do some extra raking of leaves into small piles and burn even more off inside the spotty burn area of the first section…the second section burned a lot better than the first one did….

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It just kept getting better as we progressed down the hill, the wind was blowing about 6 to 7 mph when it kicked up, and as we kept going, it was kicking up a bit more for us…that really drives the fire and makes it burn hotter going up the slight hillside…better that way…all you need is a little bit of wind, not a lot of wind, to make the leaves and undergrowth burn up better….here you see Leon spreading the fire we set to the third section with his rake…

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…and then back off and watch it a few minutes…til it gets going..making sure the heat from it doesn`t cross the line behind us and set the other leaves on fire….

…and as you can see, these flames were traveling up that slight hillside at a pretty good clip….

So we let it go and made sure the line stayed secure….

Then we moved down to the fourth section at the foot of the hill, burning up the hill toward the burn pile, which was really going to take off when it was set cause of all the stuff I had piled on it, plus a few trash bags full of leaves from my rock gardens at my house. That was the last thing we burned…there was a section of tall grass that burned really well across the 3rd section…

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By the time we got to the bottom of the hill, the fire was moving way faster but had nowhere to go as far as spreading to any unburned areas….I moved up to the top of the hill by the burn pile to set the fire up there….and Leon handled the bottom area well…

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It`s mainly tall weedy grass and leaves, with rocks underneath there, so it can really drive across there pretty good….

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Thanks for the great help Leon !!

 

 

 

Fire at Paramount Headwear in Bourbon March 18th

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Around 10:30 am Monday morning on March 18th, I heard Bourbon Fire Department dispatched to a commercial dryer on fire inside the building at Paramount Headwear in Bourbon. Chief Daniel Whatley later told me that he saw heavy black smoke in the area of Paramount as he was responding to the call…the call was then re-dispatched as a Commercial Structure Fire and Sullivan`s Pumper 854 and Ladder 852 added to the call, along with Cuba Fire Department…I drove up there, around to the rear of the building, where I found 854 and Bourbon`s lead pumper nosed into the back loading bay of the building….

….fire crews inside attacking a commercial screen printing dryer that overheated and caught fire…heavy smoke was reportedly showing when Bourbon crews arrived….as I pulled up, Ladder 852 operator Kyle Robertson began raising the ladder so that firefighters could access the roof and check the vents above the fire area….

Bourbon Firefighter Wagner climbed up to the roof to check and make sure no fire had extended from the dryer on fire into the roofline of the building…

Cuba Fire Department arrived shortly after I did…Corey Martin was driving and operating Pumper 854 and helped Bourbon crews set up positive pressure ventilation fans on the loading dock of the building to ventilate the smoke and fumes from the working area.

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Bourbon firefighters quickly responded and knocked down the majority of the fire by the time Sullivan crews arrived, and with all of the ventilation fans set up at the back of the building, employees were soon able to return to work inside the building, the one dryer taken out of service and maintenance crews cleaning up the mess.

Outbuilding Structure Fire March 14th

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Late afternoon on March 14th, Sullivan Fire Department was dispatched to an outside fire at the end of Longridge Lane off Hwy AF north of town….I had to look up that road name as I was not familiar with it and then headed that way. Chief Eric turned on to AF just ahead of me as I passed by Station Five and we continued north…Pumper 854 was ahead of us a good three or four minutes and I could see heavy black smoke off to the northeast of us a ways. As we approached where AF turns into Ridge Road, the smoke appeared to be east of us and we both missed the road sign for the turn off onto Longridge Lane…we only went a little ways before turning around…I told Chief Eric I thought the turn was back up on top of the hill and off to the east, so we went back up there and met Mickey Montee heading that way, advising his it was his son Matt`s place at the end of the road. Recent rains made the ground extremely wet and soggy, so there were no pull off places as we followed him to the scene and had to park in the driveway with the fire trucks…normally I like to stay out of their way but there were no other alternatives for parking this time…we arrived to find the crew of Captain Dave Konys trying to search and knock down hot spots of a single story outbuilding located behind the residence….

..I moved over to the west side where firefighters Stetson Zelch and Ryan Sumpter were trying to extinguish the fire in the Bobcat…fuel and rubber burning in and around the machine were making it nearly impossible for them to put the fire out…

It was very windy that day and wind has spread the fire down into the woods behind the building as well, so some of the crews arriving behind us were donning leaf blowers, then walking down the hill to put a line around that fire…the building was basically on the ground when Dave`s crew arrived….

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…leaving firefighters with containment and extinguishing the fires inside the perimeter, made easier with the removal of the tin roof sheets…St Clair Fire Department responded with a pumper tanker and arrived just ahead of Tanker 853….

…their firefighters assisting Sullivan firefighters in extinguishing the fire remaining….

……Sullivan`s firefighters made a second attempt at putting out the Bobcat fire….

In the next video, I made a mistake, thought I was filming Zac Martell on the hoseline when it was actually Stetson Zelch on the hoseline assisted by Ryan Sumpter…so again, sorry about that Stetson….

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Firefighters remained on scene for about 90 minutes before releasing St Clair and Tanker 853 from the scene…