|
Saturday's Internet Edition, July 31, 2010.
Wilton plagued by grass fires due to high winds
|
Photo by Tom Dark
WFD firefighters practice extinguishing a grass fire during a scheduled training session. Their skills will be put to the test all summer when hot and dry conditions in Wilton often cause many grass fires.
|
By Fran Soto
River Valley Times Staff
-
Wilton Fire Protection District (WFD) responded to 13 grass fires all attributed to windy conditions causing downed power lines or exploding transformers from June 11-13. Five of these grass fires were in Wilton, and the remaining fires were mutual aid calls from Cosumnes Service District and Sac Metro Fire.
According to WFD Chief Tom Dark, the high wind conditions raised a red flag for the department. “All of these were red flag days because of the high winds. Dispatch adds more units on red flag days,” Dark said.
Wilton fires caused units to be dispatched to Dillard and Riley roads for a grass fire on June 11 at 2:31 a.m., and again on the same date at 3:48 a.m. for a log that was on fire.
On June 12 at 5:45 a.m., another grass fire was reported on Lee School and Tavernor roads. Crews were dispatched Sunday, June 13 at 11:43 a.m. to Blake and La Clair roads for a grass fire and on the same date at 2:44 p.m. for a fire at 10622 Dillard Road near the levy.
“All of these grass fires were because of power lines and the wind,” Chief Dark said. “Crews were out for several hours on each of these calls.”
In addition, crews were also dispatched on June 11 to a minor smoke incident at Alta Mesa and Woods roads, and WFD had a call on June 13 to put out a fire in a propane tank that overheated on Walmort Road.
Although WFD received 20 calls from June 10 to June 14 including medical calls, Chief Dark reports the department had the units and manpower to respond to all but one mutual aid call.
Mutual aid fires occurred in the areas of Excelsior, Van Vleck, Grantline and Latrobe roads. “Galt asked for mutual aid, but we had to keep what we had left in our district,” said Dark. “We sent out mutual aid on most of our water tender and grass rig units. We had enough response from resident volunteers to staff the units needed to protect our area.”
Dark said three days of high winds is an unusual event during the summer, but windy conditions do occur when fire danger is high. Dark encourages residents to be mindful of fire hazards during the summer. “Be careful of barbecues and don’t park in tall weeds,” he said. “Mow early when the moisture content is still high."
|
Online publication, Copyright 2005, The River Valley Times.
Web page design,
Copyright 2005, EZ Edit Web Publishing.
|
|
| |