INGLESIDE — Firefighters are putting out hotspots after a massive fire in a field and marsh west of Ingleside.
Firefighters from Long Sault, Ingleside and Newington were called around 4 p.m. to the site, which is just west of the end of Farran’s Point Road and south of the CNR tracks. The area is south of mile marker 786, just west of the Dickinson Drive exit on Highway 401.
Emergency officials received several calls from motorists on Highway 401 as smoke drifted across the highway.
Fire Chief Gilles Crepeau tells Cornwall Newswatch the fire was about ten acres of brush and jumped a stream as it consumed tinder-dry swamp grass. Frogs could be heard peeping amongst the flames. Crepeau says it likely started from a nearby resident who was burning and the flames got out of control with the wind picking up. “I’m pretty sure the origin was somebody burning a brush fire south of us and it got out of hand, the wind picked up and obviously the wind spread the fire quite a ways,” Crepeau said.
“It’s labour intensive. The guys try to get ahead of it, we cool down the brush,” Crepeau added in explaining the exhausting work of trudging through the marshy field. “We have at least 30 guys…guys are exhausted right now.”
The smoke did not result in any shutdown of the highway but one CNR track has been closed as a precaution as emergency vehicles and firefighters are very close to the tracks. A CN pickup truck was on scene to help firefighters ferry supplies from one end of the fire to the other.
So far there are no injuries however Cornwall EMS paramedics are standing by. They left the scene around 8 p.m.
Click on the photos below to open a gallery of photographs from the scene.
Scenes from a ten acre marsh and grass fire west of Ingleside, Ont. on April 29, 2015. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)
Fire trucks are lined up along a narrow dirt road where the grass fire is (to the left of the trucks in the photograph). Scenes from a ten acre marsh and grass fire west of Ingleside, Ont. on April 29, 2015. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)
South Stormont firefighters plan their attack while an SD&G O.P.P. walks down the edge of the railway tracks. Scenes from a ten acre marsh and grass fire west of Ingleside, Ont. on April 29, 2015. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)
One of the CN freight trains passing through the fire zone. Scenes from a ten acre marsh and grass fire west of Ingleside, Ont. on April 29, 2015. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)
A freight train passes a fire scene. At least a half dozen freight and passenger trains passed through the area during the fire. The south track was shut down for approximately four hours as a safety precaution. Scenes from a ten acre marsh and grass fire west of Ingleside, Ont. on April 29, 2015. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)
Scenes from a ten acre marsh and grass fire west of Ingleside, Ont. on April 29, 2015. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)
Scenes from a ten acre marsh and grass fire west of Ingleside, Ont. on April 29, 2015. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston, File)
Flames leap up from the tinder-dry brush in a field next to the CNR tracks. Scenes from a ten acre marsh and grass fire west of Ingleside, Ont. on April 29, 2015. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)
Two firefighters work to beat down the flames at the east side of a ten acre brush fire. Scenes from a ten acre marsh and grass fire west of Ingleside, Ont. on April 29, 2015. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)
Firefighters work to put out hotspots on the western edge of a large brush fire. Scenes from a ten acre marsh and grass fire west of Ingleside, Ont. on April 29, 2015. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)
South Stormont Fire Chief Gilles Crepeau watches his men and women in action putting out hotspots after a ten acre marsh and grass fire west of Ingleside, Ont. on April 29, 2015. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)
Scenes from a ten acre marsh and grass fire west of Ingleside, Ont. on April 29, 2015. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)
A Google satellite map of the area where the fire started:
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