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On Tuesday night around 8:15pm a fire started in a dry field next to the NS ball fields.
“It was located I guess you could say North-East of the ballpark. It shared the ballpark fence and a residential lot,” said volunteer firefighter, Julie Beckstead.
The fire was human caused and could have been preventable. Authorities say that the official cause is still under investigation.
“ [Citizens] need to realize that the state puts out fire restrictions, and it’s not to be bothersome to people and cause issues for people and make them mad. No, it’s to protect everybody,” Beckstead said.
NS teacher Austin Hadley was playing softball in the ballpark at the time the fire started.
“They had it pretty well under control. We finished playing at 8:30 and by 9:30 it was pretty much done, so kind of exciting but not that exciting,” Hadley said.
The Mt. Pleasant Fire Department was the first to arrive at the scene, having been called in for a brush fire. After arriving it became clear that a motorhome had also become involved. At which point the Fairview fire department was called in as back up.
“Mt. Pleasant had a fairly good containment of it, so we just stepped in to help provide water,” said Beckstead.
Not long after the Spring City department came with extra water, making the fire a three station affair.
Civilians can be in danger and in the way when trying to get a glimpse of what the first responders may be doing. It is important to remember to stay out of their way so that they can focus on their jobs.
“It makes it so that our fire trucks have to wait for the citizens to get out of the way so that we can get our fire truck in a position that we can help fight the fire,” said Beckstead. “…the hardest job for a fireman or the police officers in an emergency situation is always the people that want to look, when they do that it causes a lot of problems.”
