Emergency personnel in Lawrence County spent Monday afternoon battling a large 100-acre fire.
According to Lawrence County Sheriff Brad DeLay, first responders received a report about 12:30 p.m. Monday about a fire on FF Highway near K Highway and Highway 39.
“It was literally like lighting a match and throwing it into gasoline because it took a matter of minutes for it to spread over the entire 100 acres,” according to Sheriff DeLay.
Sheriff DeLay said the charred area is used to produce biofuel.
“Essentially, they harvest the crop in here to produce biofuel. So it was obviously going to be heated. “They used it to make fuel for vehicles, farm implements, and so on,” Sheriff DeLay explained.
Sheriff DeLay said he was one of the first responders and noted the flames were six to ten feet tall and reaching close to powerlines in the region. Around ten fire departments responded for mutual aid to contain the fires, totaling over 100 firefighters. According to the sheriff, firefighters utilized roughly 50,000 gallons of water.
Steve Wageman, less than three miles away, watched the smoke rise into the skies.
“I knew it had to be a rapidly developing fire because the smoke was so high in the atmosphere. So I was aware that it was really enormous. And, of course, wind gusts of 30-40 miles per hour,” he stated.
“We’ve been working to contain and extinguish this fire for about three hours. We believe we have approximately 100 acres, possibly a little more, that have essentially disappeared. And, fortunately, because of our swift response and ability to collaborate with all of these other agencies, we were able to keep things from getting much worse,” said Sheriff DeLay.
According to Sheriff DeLay, the fire occasionally crossed across the roadway, but firemen and farmers in the vicinity were prepared with trucks full of water.
The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
“I couldn’t imagine anyone to be burning in this type of atmosphere,” Wageman claimed.