Fire Burns 1,200 Acres

PRESCOTT - A four- alarm brush fire south of Prescott burned about 1,200 to 1,400 acres the evening of Oct. 2, officials say.

District 7 Fire Chief Tim Mayberry said the fire start- ed about 7 p.m. and crews were on scene until about 10:30 p.m. The blaze was located off of Brown Road on the hill above the city.

"It was a very-fast mov- ing fire," Mayberry said. "The wind took it and spread it out pretty good."

No one was injured and no structures were burned, he said. The nearest resi- dence was about three-quar- ters of a mile away and it was never in danger.

The cause of the fire is believed to have been from a live electrical wire that dropped into the dry grass, Mayberry said. There used to be working TV antennas on the hill that these wires powered, he added.

The land is owned by three different farming groups, he said, including Brown & Ford Ranch and Kent Land Company.

About 60 firefighters from departments all over the county helped battle the fire that Tuesday night with the assistance of about 29 different apparatuses.

After the crews went home at about 10:30 p.m., District 7 was called back out at about 2 a.m. to the scene to extinguish a flare up that had spread just about 1 acre, Mayberry said.

Scott Ford, of Brown & Ford Ranch, said his fam- ily lost about 300 acres of stubble in the fire. They have owned the land since about 1900, Ford said.

He added that the fire will make farming harder for his family this year. The fire will make the land too dusty to spray for weeds so the family will have to re-crop it this year, he said. The fam- ily may have to plant spring wheat and barley that way this year.

"It's a problem," Ford said. "We did not want to see it go up in smoke."

He added his family members are seeding their land right now and when that task is complete, they'll figure out the best course of action.

Mayberry said this fire was "one of the bigger ones" this fire season. The largest was Walker Canyon in July, he said. However, District 7 itself hasn't had any fires other than this one in its boundaries during the sum- mer months.

"Fire season was pretty quiet around here," he said.