What was supposed to be a controlled burn by a Pettis County landowner on Thursday quickly jumped the firebreaks he had carved into his field with his Bobcat. Pettis County Fire Protection District reached out to the Sedalia Fire Department as Pettis County’s brush trucks’ fire-fighting capabilities were soon outstripped by the wind-fed blaze just southwest of the city.
“Pettis County Fire District requested us for mutual aid, they're working a large natural cover and brush fire in the very far northeast part of the county way out past Longwood,” said Sedalia Fire Chief Greg Harrell as he took a moment from tamping down the fire to explain. “This fire was evidently a controlled burn from early this morning and got out of control, extremely poor judgment.”
The Governor's Office, the State Fire Marshal, and the Pettis County Sheriff’s Office have all requested no open burning due to dry conditions and multiple fires over the past few days.
“This is a prime example of what can happen, if you watched in the news the last two or three days statewide fire departments are just running like crazy,” said Harrell. “People think it's a nice time to clean up in the spring, it's dry and all that and it is dry, but you can see what happened it gets away so easily and what people don't realize is if this fire here had burnt one these houses down the individual that started the fire is financially responsible.”
Fire crews from Sedalia, Pettis County and Green Ridge pitched in with brush trucks, leaf-blowers to blow the lines of fire out, even tamping down the fire with hand rakes. As southerly winds fanned the flames quickly north, the crew used Craftsman Drive as a firebreak to protect newly constructed homes.
“We've had to protect a couple two or three nice homes down here that the fire burned clear up into their backyards,” said the Chief. “Pettis County asked for mutual aid from us because of the fact that they had everything in their resources committed. We've got Green Ridge here to help us. We only have one brush truck. This is not something we do a lot of in the city.”
Luckily, hydrants in the neighborhood were used to refill the tanks of the brush trucks again and again. The brush after recent snows had caused decomposition of the tall grasses so the flammability was increased according to Harrell. “It has a lot of nitrogen in the material there and is burning pretty hot,” he said. “You saw the flames were 8, 9, 10 foot even taller in a few places.”
Fortunately, the winds calmed enough to allow the firemen to get control of the blaze, which scorched around 10 acres.
“In this tree line down here are a couple of natural gas-powered generators for emergency power and we were able to keep those from being damaged and kept it away from the houses, that's the key thing,” said Harrell.
The chief warned those burning that they may be held liable for damages caused after escaping their property. The insurance companies can, and a lot of times do, go after fire starters for restitution. State statutes also allow those starting fires to be charged fees for manpower and equipment.
Within hours, crews were battling another five-acre blaze along nearby Sacajawea Road, fires the Chief said were keeping his crews running. Harrell added, “there's just a lot of people involved not just here but statewide it's been a pretty rough three days for the fire services around the state.”
