Local Weather Forecast
Today: Current:68	Saturday: 88/62	Sunday: 80/55
Complete Forecast for  May 09 2008

Arp and Chapel Hill Volunteer Fire Departments stayed busy Sunday.

Smith County Asst. Fire Marshal Marilynn Wilson said a barn fire call came in at 12:04 p.m. at 23842 County Road 26.

The owner had planned a party of 100 guests for the upcoming weekend, Wilson wrote in an e-mail. Numerous antiques and collectables were lost in the fire. The building was made of cedar on two sides and metal construction.

There was insurance and content value has yet to be determined.

The owner's wife was home in the nearby house and called him on his cell to tell him fire was in the barn, Ms. Wilson wrote. He was in Tyler at the time, and he called his employee, who lives four miles away. He responded to find the barn fully involved and called for the fire department.

Arp Volunteer Fire Department had two trucks on location, and called for additional help from the Chapel Hill Volunteer Fire Department.

While mopping up this fire, the Arp department was dispatched to a grass fire, and requested Chapel Hill units that were leaving to take the call, Ms. Wilson wrote.

The grass fire, at 24477 County Road 244 in Overton, required assistance from Arp, Chapel Hill, Jackson and Overton departments. The Troup Volunteer Fire Department and Texas Forestry responded with plows to contain the fire, as it crossed onto two other properties and jumped a creek, Ms. Wilson said.

The fire is believed to have started by tall grass that had been bushhogged in the bottom land of a skeet shooting range, Ms. Wilson wrote. The tractor operator did not think he hit anything, but got off the tractor to pick something up that would have been in his next pass. He was behind the brush hog and started back to the tractor when he saw fire about four feet behind the mower, according to Ms. Wilson. He had just gotten the tractor the day before and did not have a fire extinguisher on it, but said that he would have one before Monday had ended, she wrote.

The fire burned approximately 10 acres. There were no injuries in either fire.