Controlled burn spawns hillside brush fire
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - Gilberton Fire Marshal Barry Brassington watches as a pile of refuse burns in Maizeville on Oct. 22, 2020.
MAIZEVILLE – A controlled burn in this section of Gilberton borough spread beyond control, burning the hillside late Thursday.
Firefighters were first called just after 5:00pm to a garage on Main Street between Maizeville and Mahanoy Plane for the fire.
Crews were notified that a controlled burn had spread out of control, spawning a brush fire.
A Gilberton fire marshal responded to the scene and, after about half an hour and no response from a fire engine, determined the fire was back under control and cleared the scene.
At the time, flames were seen beyond the confines of the pile, and flaming papers and embers were flying high into the sky.
About an hour later, they were called back to the scene for a brush fire, as the fire had spread halfway up the hillside.
Along with firefighters from Gilberton’s Continental and American Fire Companies, crews from Shenandoah, Englewood, and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resource Bureau of Forestry responded and brought the blaze under control in about an hour and a half.
The fire was reportedly refuse from the floods in the borough this past summer.
No one was injured in the fire.
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