Officials: Five Fires Strike Hardeman County in Three Days
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HARDEMAN COUNTY, Tenn. — Grand Junction firefighters say for the month of January they’ve seen six fires, five of them happening in just three days. One of them, they say, destroyed a home on Old Grand Junction Rd. after 4:00 A.M., Tuesday. Jimmy Harris, who lives next door, says his wife spotted the flames. “She run in the house hollering fire, fire, fire, I thought my house was on fire,” Harris said. Firefighters say four of the fires were grass fires and they believe residents burning trash could be a cause. According to officials from October 15 through May 15 anyone starting an open-air fire within 500 feet of any grassland must by law secure a burning permit from the Division of Forestry. “The people burning trash windy days like this they don’t need to be burning nothing,” Harris said. “They don’t need to be striking a match cause its dangerous.” Officials say no one was home when the house fire started and the people who lived there had moved to a local hotel because of problems with their pipes. “[I] just wish people would be careful with things, home structure fires, space heaters, gas heaters, they have to be extremely careful not to put anything flammable within three feet of them,” Grand Junction Assistant Fire Chief Patrick McGuire said. Officials say the high winds didn’t play a part in Tuesdays fire but the cause is undetermined. Right now they say they’re still deciding whether to investigate the blaze.
