A fire destroyed a shed and singed a carport roof on Dixie Drive in the Jefferson County portion of Fenton on Dec. 15. High Ridge Fire Protection Chief John Barton said a 10-by-12-foot shed was fully engulfed in flames by the time fire crews arrived at 12:56 p.m.
“(The shed) was maybe 4 feet from the carport and so the roof had just started to catch (on fire) when we got there,” Barton said. “The first truck arrived on the scene and took an attack line to extinguish the fire. They were able to get the carport extinguished right away.”
Barton said all of the shed’s contents were destroyed. The house, connected to the carport, was not damaged.
Barton said the cause of the fire was ruled undetermined but not suspicious.
“The homeowner was home and had been in the backyard working, burning leaves in a barrel,” he said. “He came around to the carport area and noticed that his shed was on fire. There was nothing we could find that would directly link (the burn barrel) to the shed fire. There wasn’t a path of singed grass or anything leaning from the burn barrel he had to the shed. We couldn’t determine definitively that was the cause of the fire.”
Barton said his crews have put out several brush fires in the last few weeks that seem to be caused by a combination of dry conditions, high winds and stray embers from controlled burns.
“When conditions are dry, it doesn’t take a whole lot to get something to burn,” he said. “We’ve had a few days recently where winds have been especially high – 25 to 35 miles per hour wind gusts in the last week. Any rain or precipitation we may have gotten in the last week would have dried out pretty quickly with that wind.”
Barton cautioned now is not the right time for a controlled burn.
“I think what is important for people to remember is that we may get a light rain for a short period of time, but when if it’s followed up by strong winds the next day, it’s almost as if we didn’t get that rain at all,” Barton said. “It’s not really soaking into the ground and reducing the risk of fire.”
No injuries were reported. Crews remained on the scene until 1:42 p.m.