Business owner suffers damage before burn ban in place

The county-wide burn ban came too late for Jerry Shields.

His Isaac Lane property, JR Automotive, was damaged in Friday’s 10-acre brush, tree and grass fire. The Neosho Fire Department and Neosho Area Fire Protection District issued burn bans Friday evening and Monday morning a ban was issued for Newton County.

Newton County Associate Commissioner Jerry Black said fire chiefs from around the area petitioned the county for the ban.

“It’s the first time since 2006 we’ve had to issue a burn ban,” Black said.  

Late Friday morning, Shields stepped out and saw his neighbor burning trash, and asked if they needed any help. He got a thumbs-up, but five minutes later, Shield said, the fire was out of control. There was thick black smoke pouring from the fire site under the main power transition line.

“I’d just come through my gate and latched it and about the time I did, it sent an arc from the power lines through the transition line,” Shields said.

The electricity shot through the ground, welding the fence shut and ricocheting around the property. Shields was about 150-feet away from the fire.

“It sent fireballs everywhere and grass fires just started everywhere,” he said. “If I would have been touching the gate I would have been dead.”

Firefighters had been working an accident before the call and told Shields they saw the smoke from town before they got the call. He still does not have a cost estimate on damage from the fire.

His meter loop was struck, equipment inside his building was damaged and phone lines around the area were shot. On the south side of his building the fire raced down a barbed wire fence setting a tree stump and wood fence on fire 10 feet from the building. The stump was still smoldering Monday. A spark burned a hole in the propane line, draining the tank, luckily it was a small flash and went out before it could spread.

Fire conditions around the area prompted the ban. Two fires over the weekend claimed four structures in the Redings Mill Fire Protection District.

“The conditions are just so volatile right now there’s really just no careful measures that you can take on burning outdoors,” said Redings Mill Fire Chief Andy Nimmo. “The grass is tinderbox dry. The humidity has been getting down really low in the afternoons, the winds have been shifty and strong. All of that just creates the “perfect storm,” per se, for a big fire and we’ve had some big ones already.”

Friday two mobile homes in the Greenwood area burned when the property owner set a trash fire nearby. The trailers were unoccupied and used only for storage. Saturday two mobile homes occupied by one individual burned off Amelia Lane. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but firefighters believe a grassfire started on nearby land spread and the buildings caught fire. In the Amelia Lane fire Redings Mill called Neosho, Duenweg and Joplin fire departments on mutual aid.

Trash fires, brush fires, even a discarded cigarette have fire hazard potential, Nimmo said. Rain forecast for this week is not likely to improve the situation.

“That scares me a little more than anything, because a little rain is not going to do us much good,” Nimmo said. “We’re going to get about eight hours of break, but as soon as it stops raining and the water runs off and the wind starts going all of those top fuels are going to be just as dry as they were. Until we get a pretty significant rainfall across the entire area it’s going to be dry conditions.”

The burn ban prohibits: careless disposal of cigarettes, cigars and pipe ash; building an open fire – excluding permanent outdoor stoves, fireplaces and barbecue grills, but including campfires; and prescribed burning of fields, trash and debris. Where necessary for crop survival a written exception can be granted by the Newton County Director of Emergency Management. It is a misdemeanor offense to knowingly burn during a ban.

Every year has its dry spell and Shields urges caution.

“People don’t realize if you know what you’re doing or even if you don’t know what you’re doing it can get away from you real quick,” he said.