An illegal burn barrel fire spread to the surrounding woods and destroyed a snowmobile before the Antrim Fire Department could extinguish it on Thursday morning. First responders were summoned to 194 Old Hancock Road at 9:35 a.m., where the elderly landowner had been attempting to extinguish the flames himself after a fire spread through the holes in the bottom of a burn barrel onto the surrounding leaves. The man had inhaled some smoke and was checked by ambulance personnel but ultimately refused further treatment, Gale said.
The fire jumped a stone wall and started to get into the woods, and consumed a snowmobile and damaged a trailer, Gale said, but the Fire Department got it under control before it reached two nearby outbuildings. Gale attempted to contain the fire’s perimeter with a forestry rake until trucks arrived, he said, after which the fire was out in five minutes.
“Fortunately we didn’t have the wind today,” Fire Chief Marshall Gale said, or the situation could have been considerably worse. “Open burning can easily get out of a person’s control,” he said. Wildfire risk is high this time of year, Gale said, and residents should obtain a permit from their local warden or department, and make sure conditions are favorable before doing any open burning.