SCIOTO TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A combine caught fire in a Pickaway County field Thursday night, prompting a mutual-aid response from four fire departments that extinguished the blaze without anyone hurt, according to the Scioto Township Fire Department.
The Scioto Township, Jackson Township, Pleasant Township and Tri-County Joint fire departments all responded to the fire, which spread briefly into the surrounding field before crews knocked it down, the department said in a Facebook post. No one was injured.
The four departments are regular mutual-aid partners. The Scioto Township Fire Department, which covers about 11,000 residents in the township and the villages of Commercial Point and Orient, lists Jackson Township, Pleasant Township and the Tri-County Joint Fire District among the agencies it trains and responds with, along with Harrison and Hamilton township departments, according to the township’s government website.
Combine and field fires are a seasonal hazard across Ohio farm country. An estimated 200 combine and field fires are reported in the state each year, and Ohio ranks fourth in the nation for combine fires, according to Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. The fires typically start when dry crop residue or grain dust combines with heat from a machine’s engine, belts or exhaust, or with static electricity generated as the combine moves through a field. OSU extension specialists recommend farmers keep fire extinguishers on hand, clean dust and debris from machinery daily during harvest and avoid running combines during the hottest, driest parts of the day.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Scioto Township Fire Department.
