Six suspicious fires dot rural landscape.Byline: Jim Feehan The Register-Guard PLEASANT HILL - As many as 10 agencies battled a series of suspicious grass fires Tuesday in rolling hills Rolling hills are like a mountain chain, only a "hill chain" of hills that roll on and on continually. You will often find them in between plains and mountains, near major rivers, or randomly anywhere. The only places without rolling hills are deserts and flood plains. about two miles south of here. Shortly before 6 p.m., crews battled as many as six separate fires covering 6 acres from North Morningstar Road to Hendricks Road, about three miles east of Interstate in·ter·state adj. Involving, existing between, or connecting two or more states. n. One of a system of highways extending between the major cities of the 48 contiguous United States. Noun 1. 5, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. South Lane Rural Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Bob Millam. "The fires appear to be of a human cause," he said. The smoke could be seen from I-5 and Highway 58. Some of the fires were difficult to reach as trucks had to navigate narrow, winding country roads. The cause and origin of the blazes are under investigation. Arson arson, at common law, the malicious and willful burning of the house of another. Originally, it was an offense against the security of habitation rather than against property rights. investigators from the Oregon State Police have been notified, Millam said. One of the blazes came close to a house and a barn, but firefighters knocked the blaze down before it reached them, Millam said. No one was injured in·jure tr.v. in·jured, in·jur·ing, in·jures 1. To cause physical harm to; hurt. 2. To cause damage to; impair. 3. and no horses, cattle or other livestock died because of the fire, Millam said. "That was a real concern to us in battling this blaze," he said. The fires were contained at 7 p.m. Millam said crews were to stay on the scene overnight to monitor the site. Neighbors, some of whom have lived in the area as long as 25 years, said they couldn't recall any fires in the area previously. Paul Preziose, who lives on Enterprise Road, was returning home from work when he saw one grass fire along Hendricks Road, which he pegged as a field burn or perhaps the result of a careless careless adj., adv. 1) negligent. 2) the opposite of careful. A careless act can result in liability for damages to others. (See: negligent, negligence, care) smoker smoker A person who smokes tobacco, almost always understood to be cigarettes Ratio of ♂:♀ smokers Philippines64/19, China61/7, Saudi Arabia53/2, Russia50/12 with a cigarette. He turned the corner onto Enterprise and saw five different fires on the hills north of his home. "I thought, oh God, we got someone setting fires," Preziose said. He described the bucolic area as very quiet. "The worst you get is a dog chasing sheep," he said. Crews from South Lane, Pleasant Hill, Springfield, Dexter dexter /dex·ter/ (deks´ter) [L.] right; on the right side. dex·ter adj. Of or located on the right side. , Lowell, Goshen, Coburg, McKenzie, the Oregon Department of Forestry and the U.S. Forest Service responded to the fires. Paul Kaplan had a commanding view of the fires from his North Morningstar Road home. Two tanker trucks from the Pleasant Hill Rural Fire Department pulled into Kaplan's driveway, in case the fire worked its way toward his house. "The fire department is one of those things you don't think of until you need it," he said. |
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