2 brush fires blamed on 'winter grass' Sparks blamed for blazes in Ravenna Township, Brimfield

By Colin McEwen

Record-Courier staff writer

Dried "winter grass" was blamed on two Portage County fires Wednesday, that ended with no injuries.

The Ravenna Township Fire Department responded to a call of a brush-fire at 5:02 p.m. on Lake Rockwell Road, near S.R. 44.

Capt. Bill Anders said when firefighters arrived, the blaze had consumed approximately an acre of dried grassland on the property.

It took six area departments 90 minutes to extinguish the flames.

Anders said the blaze began when the property owners were using torches to clean up scrap metal.

At least one car on the property went up in flames, and motorists on S.R. 44 could easily spot black smoke from the field.

"There was a lot of smoke," he said. "Smoke from the tires and from the grass itself."

Departments from Ravenna Township, Mantua-Shalersville, Rootstown, Streetsboro, Edinburg and Brady Lake contained the fire from spreading.

"We got ahead of it, cut it off and pushed it back," Anders said. "It went very smooth, but it just took a little time."

The only damage sustained was to the property owners' "scrap property."

"This is the time year, when we get calls on brush fire," he said. "Winter grass is very dry, and it doesn't take much to get going."

The other brush fire in the county Wednesday occurred in the 4500 block of Sunnybrook Road in the Brimfield.

According to Brimfield Fire Department Lt. Randy Porter, the property owner was using a reciprocating saw, causing sparks that set 75-square-feet of grass on fire at about 5:30 p.m.

He said Brimfield was the only department to respond to the fire, which was extinguished in two minutes.

"The homeowner had most of the fire put out by the time we got there," he said.