Brush fire gets out of control

The Superior Fire Department had a busy afternoon last Monday when they responded to a fire off of Riverbend Road.

No homes were damaged in the fire that began Monday afternoon when a cleanup fire started by Superior resident Marla Freeman got out of control. She said that she started burning brush in her backyard at around 10 a.m. and when she finished she drenched the fire and the ground around it with water.

“It just looked like it was going to sit there and smolder,” Freeman said.

Freeman said that once she had doused the fire she went into her home to do some other chores. At around 1 p.m. she said she noticed that her back yard was on fire and immediately called the fire department.

“I thought it was comfortable to leave, but apparently I was wrong,” Freeman said.

According to Superior Fire Chief John Woodland, the fire started to move across Freeman’s lawn and up a steep hill behind her house toward Riverbend Road, but a change in the wind caused the fire to quickly change directions and move sideways across the hill. He said the dry conditions and extreme heat last Monday helped the fire grow and quickly take off up the hill.

Lolo District Fire Management Officer Robert Derleth was present at the blaze. He said that fires can spread more rapidly when moving uphill because heat from the fire rises, fueling its spread.

Woodland said the fire was particularly tricky for them to control because there were homes close to the Freeman’s home on either side.

According to Woodland, the fire department was able to control the blaze with fire lines on either side of it, preventing the fire from approaching neighboring homes.

Firefighters from the Forest Service Nine Mile District, St. Regis, Superior, and Frenchtown showed up to help quench the fire. Woodland said there were as many as 20 firefighters working on the blaze.

The fire burned the majority of Freeman’s backyard, destroying two sheds and burning several cars and a tractor that were parked in her front yard. None of Freeman’s neighbors lost property, although some of the blaze made its way to the grass on a neighbor’s property.

“At this point I’m just numb. I’m just glad that nobody was hurt and nobody’s home was damaged,” Freeman said while watching firefighters finish extinguishing the blaze.

Freeman said the fire was a valuable lesson for her and her family.

“You’ve just got to be really careful when you’re burning; you can’t take your eyes off that fire for a minute,” Freeman said.

Woodland said cleanup fires that restart from extreme heat or dryness are a common occurrence for Mineral County. He said he once responded to an incident where a two-month-old fire coals, which had never fully extinguished, re-ignited and started a blaze.

“Especially with these dry conditions, you just have to be really careful when you’re burning out here,” Woodland said.

Freeman said she has been living on the property with her husband Steve and their daughter for 25 years and nothing like this has ever happened to them before.

“We’ve even burned the property on purpose plenty of times,” Freeman said.

For some of the Superior firefighters, last Monday’s incident was their first experience fighting a real fire.

William Fuller, 16, is a member of the Junior Firefighters who helped battle the blaze from a safe distance and spent some time using the fire hose after the blaze had died down.

“I joined to help my community,” Fuller said.

Woodland said the firefighters did an excellent job extinguishing the blaze.

The fire took place just before the end of open burning season. As of May 1, anyone burning trash or plant debris in Mineral County needs to obtain a burning permit from the Forest Service at the Superior Ranger District Office on West Riverside in Superior.