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Editor’s note: LeAnn R. Ralph serves as chair of the Town of Otter Creek and as chair of the Colfax Community Fire District board.
By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — The Colfax Community Fire Department, along with firefighters from Boyceville and Sand Creek, responded to a fire in the Town of Otter Creek the evening of March17 that ended up burning four or five acres.
The Colfax fire department was called out about 5 p.m. for a fire on county Highway S near 670th Street on property owned by Elvin Newhouse, said Gary Hill, Colfax fire chief.
The fire started when the occupants of a trailer house were burning cardboard in a fire pit, and the fire got away from them, he said.
The fire destroyed a utility shed, a garden shed, a van, a car, a farm tractor, some old tires and a few brush piles, Hill said.
The Colfax fire department received mutual aid from the Boyceville fire department and the Sand Creek fire department, which both provided additional brush trucks, tenders and utility terrain vehicles, he said.
The fire departments used 8,000 gallons of water before the fire reached a swampy area and then stopped at the creek, Hill said.
Firefighters were concerned about a house on another property north of the creek, he noted.
Windy and dry conditions, combined with dry grass and brush that has not yet started to turn green, contributed to the fire spreading, Hill said.
All together, firefighters were out for about four hours. There were a few hot spots that required attention, and the fire had started burning up the middle of a pine tree, he said.
The pine tree was leaning toward the house and a dog kennel, so the fire department called ACA Tree Service to cut down the pine tree, Hill said.
When the fire department arrived, neighbors already were on the scene with rakes to try to contain the fire, and that was helpful, he said.
The fire started near the road, and while the fire to burn the cardboard was in a fire pit, it was windy enough that embers from the burning cardboard apparently were blown into some dry grass, Hill said.
No one was injured as a result of the fire, he noted.
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