PORT ANGELES — An out-of-control burn south of Port Angeles was stopped in its tracks after a man jumped aboard a neighbor’s tractor and created a fire line before fire department personnel arrived.
John Gilbertson, a neighbor of the 541 Hoare Road field where the fire began, matted the grass down and kept it from going into woods before firefighters got there after being alerted to the blaze at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Assistant Chief Mike DeRousie, of Clallam County Fire District 2, said Thursday.
“If he would not have done that, the fire could have spread into the forest and we would have had a big problem. We would have had a much larger fire,” DeRousie said.
He said Gilbertson called 9-1-1 before getting on the tractor and looping it around the blaze, making a fire line to stop it from spreading into the woods.
On the other side of the trees stood Gilbertson’s house.
“He tried to mat down the grass and keep it from going into the woods before we got there,” DeRousie said.
“We would have had to call for reinforcements from DNR [the state Department of Natural Resources] and more equipment from DNR.
“It was probably 20 feet or 30 feet away from the woods where he stopped it.”
DeRousie said that by the time firefighters arrived, wind had blown the brush pile out of control.
It had burned a patch of grass and underbrush of about 7,500 square feet.
Ten firefighters arrived with two fast-attack brush engines, a tender with 3,000 gallons of water, a medic unit and a command vehicle.
DeRousie said anyone burning brush in unincorporated Clallam County must obtain a burning permit, have water on the site and monitor the fire.
Go to www.clallamfire2.org for more information.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
