Brush Fire Breaks Out Behind Porterfield Tire

Employees of scrambled to move their cars to safety following the outbreak of a fire just behind their Hog Mountain Road shop around 12:30 Monday afternoon.

Brian Drake, tire technician at Porterfield Tire, said he heard a high-voltage sound from an electrical pole behind the shop.

“I looked up and a bunch of fire was coming down, great big balls of fire,” he said, using his hands to describe the falling flames as about as large as cantaloupes.

Drake said employees rushed to move their cars, which were parked nearby, out of the path of the blaze.

“We were very concerned, it was coming this way hard,” said Tim Jackson, shop foreman.

Jackson said the fire was only about a foot and a half tall and seemingly-contained when he first saw it. Dry pinestraw and strong winds, however, fanned the flames. In a matter of minutes, the fire spread about 50 feet to the parking lot.

“I have never seen smoke that thick,” Jackson said. “You couldn't see more than 2 feet in front of you.”

At the restaurant next door, employee Stephanie Mize said she saw the smoke and thought the barbecue restaurant nearby was burning.

“It was kind of scary, at first we thought the actual building was on fire,” she said, adding that the “beaucoups of smoke” prompted curious residents of houses down the street to flock to see what was burning.

Three firetrucks were dispatched at 12:38 p.m. and arrived on-scene at 12:41p.m., said Karla Hulsey, fire rescue administrative assistant. She said the flames were put out “very quickly” and that brush fires are relatively common when the temperatures rise. The exact cause of the fire's outbreak is unknown.

Looking at the charred trees and blackened pinestraw just inches from where the employees of Porterfield Tire store wood, Drake realized just how close the fire came. He said when he first saw the fire spreading, he was worried the flames would get close enough to affect business.

“I work here, I don't want us to be out of work,” he said. “It was scary.”