A red flag day for firefighters kept several departments busy in St. Charles and Warren counties battling a brush fire for about four hours. The brush fire began marching up a hill toward people’s homes.
“I started having trouble breathing there was so much smoke in the area ashes flying over,” said Gary Riechers, who lives in the area.
The fire charred about 60 acres. The fire occurred in the Marthasville Fire Protection District. They took the lead.
New Melle Fire Chief Dan Casey said it began around noon as a controlled burn. The low humidity, dry vegetation, and winds pushed the flames out of control. That wasn’t the only challenge for firefighters. New Melle Fire Protection District was an assisting agency.
“It’s really difficult in the terrain we were in, got a lot of heavy timber. The topography here, we got a lot of up and down,” Casey said.