Brush Fire

Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.

On the afternoon of Monday, Feb. 3, Jefferson County Fire Rescue (JCFR) was called to a portion of Walker Springs Road, located near Wacissa, for an active brush fire.
According to the report issued by the JCFR, the call was received by the rescue's front billing office, not the 911 Call Center.
After receiving the details of the brush fire, JCFR Fire Chief Derrick Burrus left the station to investigate the potential fire threat.
When Chief Burrus arrived on scene, he discovered the fire had grown beyond the “small fire in a ditch” that had been reported. At this point, the fire had expanded into brush fire status and was burning through the nearby wooded areas.
In order to combat the fire, Chief Burrus needed assistance from the JCFR brush and tanker vehicles, but when he attempted to radio JCFR and request the dispatch of the additional vehicles, the radio was not able to contact the fire rescue or dispatch due to being in a radio tower 'blindspot' for communications.
Instead, Chief Burrus had to call the JCFR office via his cellphone and request the fire rescue's brush and tanker trucks, and also asked for the Florida Forestry Service to be contacted and dispatched to the scene of the fire.
While waiting for additional support, Chief Burrus began to carve out a fire break and manage the edge of the fire with a shovel.
A nearby hunting estate, Avalon Plantation, saw the smoke and arrived, offering to assist Chief Burrus with suppressing and fighting the flames, as the fire was approaching nearby Avalon property.
Avalon Plantation offered the use of their ATV and bulldozer, which they used to create a fire break and prevent the fire from spreading.
Brush Truck 1 and Tanker 1 arrived on scene and began to extinguish the flames. The Division of Forestry did eventually arrive on scene as well, but their bulldozer was not required, as Avalon Plantation's crew had already established a fire break.
The fire had been reported to the JCFR at 4:46 p.m., and by 5:50 p.m., the fire had been controlled.
An investigation into the brush fire was conducted, but the JCFR report states that the cause remains undetermined. However, the JCFR does report that a potential source might have been from a parked vehicle; there were signs near the fire that a vehicle had been parked over dry grass, which might have led to the start of the Monday evening brush fire.