A fire burnt three acres of cornfield off the southern shoulder of State Route 73 near Prairie Road on Monday, Oct. 21, 2024.
Chad Foltz | News Journal photos
WILMINGTON, Ohio — Three acres of cornfield north of Wilmington lay charred as the result of a fire early Monday afternoon. The fire began sometime after noon, off of Prairie Road just north of downtown Wilmington, alongside State Route 73 in a small patch of cornfield off the route’s southern shoulder.
None were hurt and the damage was minimal, which was a sigh of relief for several members of the Keiter family who were there at the time of the incident and attempted to put the fire out with extinguishers before the Wilmington Fire Department arrived.
“(It was) beyond what our fire extinguishers could do,” said Joe Keiter, standing alongside his brother Matt and their father Mike Keiter.
The two brothers and their father had been harvesting the corn on their property when a combine hit a set of low-hanging power lines dangling over the property, sparking a fire. The Keiters attempted to extinguish the fire before it grew unwieldy and the fire department arrived.
“Yeah, this powerline is really low and when they ran the combine under it to run the corn, it shorted out through the combine and lit the field on fire,” said Wilmington Fire Department Chief Andy Mason of the incident.
“It just shorted out between the combine and the grain tank,” said Matt Keiter, motioning to the lines above the scorched field.
According to Mason, though the fire destroyed three acres of crop, all on the scene were in good spirits. The fire was safely put out with no further incident or injury. The Keiter family was appreciative of the help from first responders and the fire departments, and quipped about the power lines.
“You want to report anything, report that the power people have their lines too low,” said Joe Keiter.
All in all, the fire department and the family were happy that the fire didn’t spread further and was safely extinguished.
“These guys came out and they did an awesome job,” said Joe Keiter, of the firefighters who came to the scene.
As well as the Wilmington Fire Department, three other departments responded to the scene.
