×

Chief: Tire fire deliberately set

Officials discovered this evidence Sunday of a previous blaze that was never reported to the fire department. (Submitted photo)

CALCUTTA — A fire Sunday deep in the woods along Beaver Creek was deliberately set in some discarded tires, according to fire officials, who said they discovered this is not the first time the tires have burned.

A 911 call just before 3:30 p.m. alerted Calcutta Fire Department of heavy smoke in the area of Calcutta-Smith Ferry and Interstate roads, but it took awhile for firefighters from four departments to actually locate the source of the smoke and then reach the deeply embedded fire.

Calcutta Fire Chief Dave McCoy said his department received mutual aid from Glenmoor, Liverpool Township stations 7 and 8 and Ohioville, Pa., firefighters in searching the steep hillsides for the fire. He took his own ATV into the woods from Grimm’s Bridge Road.

“We had trucks everywhere because we couldn’t find it,” McCoy said, adding, “It took us 35 to 40 minutes to even get to it. The smoke had died down by then. I had no cell phone service but I did have internet and sent my location to my command on top of the hill from where I was on my ATV.”

The fire was eventually discovered in about 40 to 50 old tires lying on the old railroad bed about three-quarters of a mile up the abandoned tracks into the woods, McCoy said.

Two firefighters brought Indian tanks down into the valley to battle the blaze, although McCoy said it wasn’t  completely extinguished from those efforts.

“That wasn’t near enough water to it out, but I wasn’t going to send them back and forth to the creek. It would have taken a lot of trips,” McCoy said, explaining that, with the ground as wet as it is, he was not fearful that the fire would continue or spread.

“It was wet. Nothing was going to burn,” he said.

While there, the fire department was joined by representatives of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Ohio State Parks, who surveyed the situation.

It was determined that another large fire had burned in the same area in a different pile of tires about two to three months ago, when no one alerted the fire department. According to McCoy, a resident who lives nearby said it had burned but he didn’t see the need to call the fire department.

That fire was larger than Sunday’s blaze and scorched the surrounding trees, according to McCoy.

McCoy said that “without a doubt” he believes someone deliberately set the tires on fire Sunday.

Firefighters were on the scene for about two hours, with McCoy saying it was dark by time he exited the woods.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.39/week.

Subscribe Today