Brookings Fire Department battle two fires that may be due to spontaneous combustion

The Brookings Fire Department and Sheriff’s Department respond to two fires in two days that may have been caused by spontaneous combustion.

The first was reported shortly after 4:00 o’clock Wednesday afternoon at the Brookings Landfill. A pile of tree stumps and mulch caught on fire. The damage was about $2000. Firefighters were at the scene for two hours in the extreme heat.

Shortly before 6:30 this morning, they responded to a fire in a pile of round bales east of the landfill at 210th Street and 474th Avenue. About 200 round bales had been piled up about a moth ago. The damage is estimated at $10,000. As of Noon Thursday, that fire is still burning.

Assistant Sheriff Scott Sebring says the exact cause of the fires is not known but both may have been spontaneous combustion.

 

July 29, 2021