A grass fire along Interstate 26 slowed traffic for several hours Wednesday as firefighters battled the blaze that stretched for 27 miles, officials said.

“I wouldn’t call it a major fire,” Orangeburg County Fire Systems Coordinator Gene Ball said. “But it was one of the longest-stretching fires I’ve seen in the last five or six years. It stretched from mile marker 145 to mile marker 118. There were six in Orangeburg County and the rest were in Calhoun and Lexington counties.”

Ball said the fires started at about 2:30 p.m. He surmised that a defect in some vehicle ignited the flame. He said conditions were ripe for just such an incident.

“Yesterday it was dry and the humidity was low and we had the frost last week which dried up much of the grass,” Ball said. “The fact that the fire was along the right side of the interstate tells me that a vehicle is the culprit. We feel that some vehicle was losing some kind of part, like wheel bearings.

“When that happens, they’re hot enough to ignite dry grass,” he said. “Sometimes when those things are ejected, they are cherry-red hot. There were so many little fires that we don’t suspect an individual. A person couldn’t have lit that many little fires without somebody seeing something.”

Ball said the Jamison Fire Department was the first to respond. They called for help from West Middle, which was next on the scene. The Forestry Service also responded to the scene, but the blazes were contained along the shoulders of the interstate and didn’t spread to any wooded areas.

Ball declared that Orangeburg and surrounding areas are now in fire season. He said the season usually starts at about mid-October and lasts approximately until March when the vegetation starts greening again.

“Once cool weather sets in, we call it fire season,” Ball said. “It’s not only the dry vegetation we have to be concerned about. We have to be concerned about stoves for heating as well.

During fire season, Ball said some special precautions should be taken. He suggests furnaces should be cleaned and inspected before using them; be sure fuel lines are not leaking and are working properly; and change filters in heating units.

In the yard, Ball suggests extra care when burning trash. “Always have a break around anything that you’re burning,” he said. “And the break should be adequate for the pile. For instance, if you’re burning something in a 5- or 10-gallon can, the break should be 5 or 10 feet to keep that fire from spreading. And you don’t want to burn anything on a windy day. Above all use common sense. Always think something that can happen, will happen.

“We’ve got to do all we can to keep incidents low in any fire season,” he said. “And precaution and care are our only defenses.”

T&D Staff Writer Thomas Brown can be reached at tbrown@timesanddemocrat.com and 803-533-5532.

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