Dry Conditions Fuel Fluvanna Co. Brush Fire

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Updated: 11:58 PM Jul 20, 2010 Dry Conditions Fuel Fluvanna Co. Brush Fire Crews battled a large brush fire Tuesday near Columbia Elementary School in Fluvanna County. Fire officials said a tractor created a spark, and the dry conditions in the field fueled the fire. Posted: 2:11 PM Jul 20, 2010 Reporter: Mark Tenia; Jessica Jaglois Email Address: mark.tenia@newsplex.com

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July 20, 2010

Crews battled a large brush fire Tuesday near Columbia Elementary School in Fluvanna County. It took firefighters almost three hours to battle the blaze. There were no injuries.

Fire officials say it happened quickly. A farmer was driving his tractor, collecting what hay he could for himself and the landowner.

"He said he'd made several passes around the field and everything was going fine, and at one point he just struck a rock and it was like a flint, and off went the flame and caught his equipment on fire," landowner Jim Covington said.

The fire line was about a half of a mile from Columbia Elementary School. The school was evacuated but fire officials quickly found no threat to the building.

Crews were on the scene near the intersection of Hells Bend and Wilmington roads for much of the day, and they used Columbia Elementary as their staging ground.

Covington said the dry conditions has had him concerned for some time.

"The ground is hard as a rock, the grass is brown, and so something like this could happen very easily," he said.

Initially, Kents Store and Palmyra volunteer firefighters responded. They said when they arrived on scene, it didn't take long to realize they were going to need help from other emergency responders. It took about 35 firefighters to contain the fire.

"We did evacuate some houses," said Lt. Andrew Pullen of the Fluvanna County Volunteer Fire Department. "Initially, we came here to evacuate the school because we weren't sure if we were going to be able to stop the fire before it reached the school."

Covington said about 75 of his 300 acres was destroyed, but he said he was amazed firefighters were able to contain the blaze so quickly.

Latest Comments

Posted by: Goodtimes Location: palmyra on Jul 21, 2010 at 12:09 PM

Nice work guys. Hard work to control brush fires in very dry and hot conditions with limited man power.

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