Sweet Home fire crews assisted Brownsville in two nearly back-to-back calls for truck fires on Saturday, June 29.
At 3:47 p.m., crews responded to a call in the 37100 block of Highway 228. Sweet Home Battalion Chief Eli Harris arrived with a brush engine and water tender to find a combine had some light smoke from the rear with several small spot fires in the field.
“We used a thermal camera to find the small spots of burning debris and extinguish them completely,” Harris said. “While we were on that fire finishing up, the other fire came in that was reported as a vehicle on fire next to a house.”
That call came in at 4:35 p.m. in the 36700 block of Northern Drive. According to Harris, he and Brownsville Fire Chief Kevin Rogers arrived first on scene and kept the house cooled down with brush rigs until engines arrived.
“The fire spread from the truck to the surrounding grass and started burning to the east towards the field and brush,” Harris said.
The BC and Chief sprayed the brush, vehicle and house down until the engines could get their cross lays going.
“The fire got under the house through the foundation vents a little bit, but didn’t do any serious damage,” Harris said.
Crews were able to extinguish the truck fire and most of the grass fire. A neighbor used an excavator to scrape a break around the grass fire and then pull the truck away from the house. Harris reported the major damage to the house was the siding and some of the foundation vents and subfloor insulation.”
“It was a good stop and we got lucky,” he said.