Brush fire burns within feet of house

Brush fire burns within feet of house By Mait I’ki.kky Ku|>|Nihiiiirifx k Ni'wm .Staff Writer A 21-acre brush fire off of (lid Brown I follow Hoad crept within 20 foot of a neighboring house last Friday, said Washington Fire Chief Ann Spieker. No one at the residence was home at the time, she said. Five of the county’s six lire departments, jis well as the Virginia Department of Forestry, rescinded to the afternoon fire, which burned liar hours und sent a large plume of smoke into the sky that could Is- seen miles away. The fire squads parked their vehicles on nearby Pullens Bluff Hoad und cleared brush around the fire with a bulldozer and rakes to try to contain it. “It was not a fire that you put out with your t rucks,” Spieker said. “You had to uctually walk and rake a line to stop this fire.” Spieker said that rocky terrain and thick vegetation complicated efforts. She said that the squads arrived to find that the fire had melted a seal on a 500-gallon propane tank, which was spitting flames. The crews tunit'd off the gas and cooled down the tank to keep it from exploding, Spieker said. Spieker said the cause of the fire has not f>een determined. “It could’ve been as simple as a hiker going and smoking and dropping ash,” she said. “We don’t know” Tin* forestry department is looking into the.lire, but Spieker doubts the investigation will yield a cause. “I think if we would’ve tieen able to determine a definite cause, we would’ve known by now," she said. E mail the reporter at mprImi-spaprrH.iom T