The Daily Standard
Story Archive
A field fire occurred around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday near the intersection of Siegrist Jutte and Coldwater Creek roads. Multiple fire departments responded.
CELINA - Although Thursday brought a bit of rain to the area, most of Mercer and Auglaize counties remain under a severe drought that has contributed to a spate of field fires of late.
Multiple field fires have been reported in the Grand Lake region since Oct. 24, including a few that broke out simultaneously in different locations.
Mercer County OSU Extension Educator Ryan McMichael said drought conditions definitely increase the risk of a field fire.
As of Tuesday, most of Mercer and Auglaize counties were listed as being under a severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
"That's not helping our situation," McMichael said. "The ground doesn't hold much moisture. The field stubble, the leftover plant residue, it doesn't have much moisture. And so it doesn't take much in terms of an ember, a spark, a good heat source (for a fire to) really start to take over."
The Midwest region saw widespread degradation this week with moderate and severe drought expanding over lower Michigan and severe drought expanding over northwest Ohio, northern Indiana and northern Illinois, per the drought monitor. Moderate drought pushed south in Illinois and Indiana while abnormally dry conditions expanded across almost all of Kentucky.
In June, less than 12% of the country was experiencing drought. Now it's almost 50% and growing, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
That fits the definition of "flash drought," which is different than normal slowly developing dry spells, said U.S. Department of Agriculture meteorologist Brad Rippey.
A study last year showed that a warming world from the burning of coal, oil and gas is causing more frequent and damaging flash droughts, such as a $30 billion drought that hit the United States in 2012 and a devastating 2022 drought in China.
There are many ways a field fire can start, but usually it's due to overheated farm equipment, McMichael said.
"What we look at in terms of the field fires, typically they're the result of some kind of piece of machinery," he said. "Now there's other things that do it, but typically you'll see it with a piece of equipment, where the piece of equipment might have an overheated bearing in it."
Perhaps the piece of equipment wasn't greased properly, and when metal hits metal, it started to heat up.
"That source of friction creates a fire with the piece of equipment," he said.
Field fires can also start when farm vehicles drive through corn stubble, McMichael said.
When a farm vehicle is stopped in a field and sits lower than normal, its muffler could rub up against a particularly dry piece of corn stubble, causing a fire, he said.
"You could also have people that are burning some brush on a nonfarm property, and there is an ember that happens to come up and catch fire, and it starts to spread that way," McMichael said. "So there's a whole host of things."
An ounce of prevention can go miles in preventing a field fire, McMichael said.
A pre-harvest check of all farming equipment and even checks during harvest is a good way to prevent a fire, he continued. Most pieces of equipment will have a marker that tells producers when to perform maintenance and apply grease.
"Make sure that we are checking fuel lines," he said. "Make sure that there's no faulty wiring. Those kinds of things can help."
After a producer is finished with a piece of equipment, McMichael recommends performing the necessary maintenance.
"There's always these spots in our pieces of equipment where we have build up of residue that just happens," McMichael said. "Well, when that builds up it's an easy spot for a fire to be ignited."
Some producers even mount a chain on the bottom of their machinery to drag across the ground to prevent a build up of static electricity that could spark a conflagration.
For the general public, McMichael recommends taking precautions when building a campfire or burning brush, especially during a drought.
"Just definitely take some caution before you do so if you are next to a field and especially when we haven't had rain," he cautioned.
Ohio prohibits most open burning in unincorporated areas in March, April, May, October and November between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., per the Ohio Department of Natural Resources website.
Open burning during these times may be permissible if conditions outlined in the exclusionary text are met. This code is under authority of the Ohio Division of Forestry.
-The Associated Press contributed to this report.
