Weary Lebanon Fire District crews more than earned their keep Tuesday and Wednesday, June 27-28, battling three fires around the city during a roughly six-hour period.
The excitement began shortly before 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, when personnel responded to a half-acre brush fire in the 1400 block of Grant St. According to the LFD, it started in thick brush and tall grass, making attempts to extinguish it difficult. So the on-scene battalion chief switched tactics and tackled it with fire. Crews used drip torches to consume the unburned fuels that surrounded the existing conflagration on the property, which once housed one of the city’s many lumber mills and is now surrounded by a campground, school and homes. Once the unburned fuels were consumed, crews began cooling the fire around its edges. They then secured it to prevent it from spreading past the burned area. Some four hours after arriving, they wrapped up and left.
However, the night wasn’t over. By the time they returned to the station, they were dispatched right back out to contend with another incident, this one reported at around 10:48 p.m. in the 32000 block of Brewster Road. The 40-by-40-foot blaze was quickly extinguished in an area susceptible to fires, most recently a one-acre brush fire on Sunday, June 25. This time LFD responded with 13 apparatuses and 21 personnel. Again, the Albany Fire Department helped cover the city’s multiple emergency calls.
Wednesday morning had barely begun when a crew responded to a fully involved chicken-coop fire in the 35000 block of Bohlken Drive shortly after 1 a.m. One engine and a single truck quickly tackled the blaze, which nevertheless killed 125 pheasants.
The cause of all three fires are currently under investigation.