FREE SOIL — The Free Soil, Fountain and Grant Township fire departments responded to a pallet fire around 5:30 p.m., Monday, just west of U.S. 31 and East Freeman Road.
Free Soil First Lt. Andrew Schimke said the fire was caused by a combination of hot, dry weather and windy conditions, and started with a stack of discarded pallets before spreading to some nearby foam panels.
“Basically we had an unattended fire that with the wind, picked up and spread into the foam,” Schimke told the Daily News. “An unattended fire means someone obviously thought it went out — thought they’d put the fire out — then wasn’t here anymore … and the fire spread with the heavy wind today and the dry conditions.”
Schimke said the responders had to pull apart layers of pallets which had been stacked behind AMP Tech Inc. in Free Soil to get the fire under control.
“Ultimately what happened is the the fire was left, and with the heavy, dry conditions, it spread right into foam piles,” he said, adding that there were no injuries.
Firefighters had contained most of the blaze by about 6 p.m., but the occasional flame still sprung up and smoke billowed out over the highway until around 6:30.
