Busy July for local firefighters

Things have been hopping east of town.

The Cloverdale Rural Fire Protection District's volunteer firefighters have been very busy over the last couple of weeks. Since the thunderstorms and lightning strikes that rumbled through the area on July 13, the volunteers have responded to 34 calls through Friday morning the 25th.

These calls included a structure fire, two motor-vehicle accidents (one of which involved cutting the driver out of the car on Highway 126 in Dry Canyon), a car fire, a field fire, 10 brush fires, four medical calls, two illegal outdoor burns, as well as various other calls for service.

A parked truck was completely destroyed in Panoramic last Wednesday morning. Friends of the truck owner believe it was struck by lightning. Cloverdale fire officials said the vehicle was too severely damaged to determine a cause of the fire.

To handle these calls, the Cloverdale volunteer firefighters logged over 175 hours of service during the last two weeks.

District Fire Chief Thad Olsen reminded residents that all outdoor burning is closed within the fire district. The rain showers that sometimes occur do not provide enough moisture to fuels in the area to lessen the fire danger. Embers from even small fires can travel quite some distance and start fires in grass, brush or other debris.