A corn field west of Alliston is black after fire swept across 30 acres of land on Sunday afternoon.
Firefighters from two local stations were called to put the fire out. Adjala-Tosorontio Fire Chief Ralph Snyder says it started with a small brush fire that spread through the dry grass.
“Most of these fires are not started by cigarettes being flung, they are purposely set and get out of control,” says Snyder.
On Sunday, firefighters responded to two other grass fires near Adjala-Tosorontio, one in Innisfil and another in Barrie near Anne Street in the Milligan Pond area. The latter two were put out before they could spread to nearby homes.
Even though the ground is wet from the spring thaw, the vegetation from last year is dead and dried out and it only takes a spark to ignite it. Once a grass fire is going it can travel quickly across the ground, being pushed by the wind.
According to Snyder high winds make fighting grass unpredictable and dangerous. He is grateful it wasn't as windy on Sunday as it was Monday.
“It can be very dangerous, if you are in front of that and it's coming towards you… you can't out run a fire,” he says. “I don't think there is anybody in the world that could out run a fire on day like today. Yesterday it wasn't quite as fast as this would be, if we had this wind yesterday we would have had a lot bigger fire, a lot faster.”
Right now there are no special burn restrictions in place because of rain that moved through the area, but the grass fire season can last for several weeks until the landscape starts to green up.
