Partially burned firewood sparks fire

PALMER — A truck, camper trailer and ATV burned on the Glenn Highway Monday, diverting traffic but hurting no one.

The fire began at mid-afternoon near Marsh Road. Police had to shut the highway down, but were able to divert traffic through the nearby Cedar Hills subdivision. Todd Russell with the Palmer Fire Department said the truck and trailer were fully involved when firefighters arrived.

“As far as the flames that were coming out of the truck, I’d say they were probably anywhere from 2 to 5 feet and the trailer was starting to go on the interior as well, so the flames in there would be anywhere from 2 to 5 feet as well,” Russell said.

As fires go, though, it wasn’t too difficult to fight once responders deployed their hoses.

“Everything went fairly textbook, it was the usual car fire except that it had the trailer behind it, which just made everything bigger,” Russell said.

The fire completely destroyed all three vehicles. Russell said everyone inside the truck made it out fine.

As for the cause of the blaze, “What happened is the individuals had been camping at one of the lakes north on the Glenn Highway and picked up some firewood,” Russell said.

They burned some, but a few pieces didn’t seem to have burned much over the course of the camping trip, so they tossed them in the bed of the pickup to use them later.

“Well, one of them evidently had some heat to it, maybe even some embers to it, and as they drove down the road it started burning and caught the four-wheeler in the back of the truck on fire.”

Russell said the safety message people can take away from the fire is to leave partially burned firewood behind.

“I would recommend going ahead and making sure they’re fully extinguished and then leaving them there. It’s easier to get a few more pieces of firewood the next time you go out,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.