Cutting torch starts fire north of Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE - Grant County Fire District 5 crews were able to quickly contain a blaze north of Moses Lake Wednesday afternoon.

The fire was started when a man did not properly clear the area of burnable material before using a cutting torch to work with scrap metal outside of a business near the intersection of North Stratford Road and Stone Road Northeast, according to Fire District 5 Battalion Chief Leonard Johnson.

Wind pushed the fire up a bank, across a field of dry brush and into a bank of tall trees near a structure, Johnson said. Shelly Peterson, who owns the property across the street from where the fire occurred, said she was outside weeding when she heard cries for help and saw flames as high as 10 feet and as wide as 15 feet rising from a line of tall trees and brush. Peterson said she also saw spot fires throughout the nearby field.

"I'm proud of our fire department," Peterson said. "They're very responsive, they were here within minutes."

About a dozen police and fire personnel responded with three water tenders, two wildland trucks, two structure fire trucks and a command unit, Johnson said.

"We got it contained pretty quickly but there was a lot of mop up because that property used to have a landscaping company on it, so there was a lot of bark and other material laying around," he said.