12/31/10 - 01/01/11 “C” & “A” Shifts - Woods Fires
Saturday night’s rain was a welcome sight, after multiple woods, grass and debris fires kept county fire forces busy Friday and Saturday during the holiday weekend. Dry windy conditions made the environment right for woods fires. Combined with people enjoying a long weekend cleaning yards and burning debris lead for rapid spread of many yard debris pile fires, resulting in damage to three buildings, a car and several pieces of personal property. The fires were not isolated to any specific area of the county, with firefighters responding to incidents near Bells Crossroads, Walterboro, Round O, Canadys and Cottageville. At the busiest point Saturday afternoon, seven separate incidents were in progress at one time requiring fire officials to relocate multiple fire trucks from one fire to respond to second and third fires in adjoining areas. Several required Forestry tractors to cut fire breaks around the fires to contain the blazes. No injuries were reported at any of the incidents. Citizens are urged to contact the Forestry Commission before conducting any outdoor burning and to closely monitor the fire at all times. No fire should be left unattended. People should not conduct outdoor burning when windy conditions exist. Burn barrels give a false sense of security. Several fires this week resulted from hot embers being blown from burn barrels (55 gallon drums used to burn debris). One such fire in the Pleasant Grove Community, spread from an unattended fire in a burn barrel on to adjacent property, burning four acres, endangering eight homes and causing damage to three of those structures.
