Garbage burn blamed for machine shed fire

By Julia Wolf

A machine shed is gone, after a garbage fire got away April 18.

Rick Sommerfeld, Cadott Area Fire and Rescue, says fire crews received a report of a fire at 3473 State Hwy. 27, at about 2:05 p.m. The Boyd-Edson-Delmar Fire Department, Cadott Community Ambulance, Chippewa County Sheriff’s Department and Chippewa Fire District, assisted.

Sommerfeld says the subject was burning garbage, when the wind blew the garbage out of the container. From there, some tall grass next to a shed was set ablaze.

“Burned the shed down and everything in it,” said Sommerfeld.

Sommerfeld says no people or animals were hurt in the fire, as the building was a machine shed. Some tractors, grain trucks, gravity boxes and other large equipment, was in the shed.

Sommerfeld says there are lessons everyone can learn from the fire.

“If they want to burn, they should have a permit,” said Sommerfeld.

He says, generally, those who want to burn, should do so after 6 p.m., because the wind tends to die down and the humidity rises.

“And, don’t burn when it’s windy out,” said Sommerfeld, “especially cardboards, ’cause those really float a long way and they’ll make fire keep traveling.”