BRANDON — Sparks from a neighbor’s trash fire caused the fire in corn fields along Lohr Road, south of Brandon, Sunday afternoon.
Homer Fire Department Chief Randy King said the trash fire was close to the field and the strong wind blew sparks into the very dry corn stubble on the Gary Rowe farm.
King said they investigated the fire Monday night. It was 280 yards wide and a mile long — almost the distance of Lohr Road between Granville and Weaver roads. The fire was stopped at Weaver Road. There is a statewide burning ban in Ohio, King said, for September and October from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“I don’t know how many people know about it,” he added.
The fire burned about 40 acres of corn stubble on the Rowe property and 25 acres of standing corn on the Rick Shoemaker farm. With very dry conditions the Homer Fire Department immediately called in other departments for equipment and man power to fight the fire.
King said eventually 22 departments that included all in Knox County and much of Licking County were involved in the fire fighting effort. They had enough water as the fire trucks were able to siphon water from a pond on the Rowe property. Grass trucks, four-wheel drive pickups with water tanks and pumps drove onto the fields and through the standing corn spraying water to quell the fire.
