Combines are blamed for starting several fires in the area on Wednesday. The biggest fire was near the corner of Vermundy Road and Albert Lane northwest of Kinmundy where a combine was destroyed and 30 acres of standing soybeans burned. Kinmundy-Alma Fire Chief Kevin Day says the fire apparently caused by bean dust began in a combine owned by John and Robert Jones. He reports no buildings were ever endangered. Day is thanking several neighbors who brought tractors with discs to help create a fire line to help stop the fire. The blaze was first reported at three pm with firemen on the scene for an hour and a half.
The Patoka Fire Department responded to two field fires in corn stubble started by the same combine. Patoka Fire Chief Blake Hyde says the first fire along Fayette County Road 500 E about five miles northwest of Patoka burned ten acres. Sandoval Firemen provided mutual aid assistance. The fire call came in at 3 pm. About two hours later, the same combine started another fire in a field a quarter-mile away that covered two to three acres.
Hyde says the combine was operated by Ed Houston. Both fires appeared to have been started by hot bearings. The combine escaped serious damage in both fires.
Sandoval Firemen were called back to the Barth Farms at the Weidle and Shattuc Roads in Clinton County Wednesday afternoon after a combine destroyed in a Sunday field fire began smoldering again. Fire Chief Chad Parson says the fire was confined to a portion of the combine elevator and fortunately didn’t spread to the field.
