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Woods burn in Lincoln County near the Boyle County line on June 27. (Ben Kleppinger / ben@theinteriorjournal.com / July 3, 2012) |
JUNCTION CITY — Dry conditions continue to contribute to a forest fire on a wooded knob in Lincoln County near the Boyle County line.
The fire started June 26 and has been burning since, sending pillars of smoke into the air that are visible for miles around. Lincoln County Fire Chief Danny Glass said the U.S. Forestry Service dug a trench perimeter around the fire to help contain it.
A burned tree fell across the trench Friday morning, but firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the escaped fire, Glass said. Since then, the Forestry Service has doubled the width of the trench along portions of the perimeter where fire has threatened to cross over.
Glass said he has gotten a large volume of calls from people reporting that the fire is spreading dangerously and in some cases approaching homes, but all of those calls have proven to be false tips.
Glass said he doesn't know how long it will be before the fire can be put out.
Firefighters also helped deal with a fire at a logging site along Hazelett Hollow Road on Friday.
Glass said it appears someone had a campfire and had put something like diesel fuel on the fire that had then seeped down into the ground, allowing the fire to spread through the wood pieces covering the ground.
The Division of Forestry took part in battling that fire too, Glass said. Firefighters had to attend to the fire on Friday and come back out Saturday, but Glass said as far as he knows, the blaze has now been extinguished.
