Firefighters with the Mexico Public Safety Department were kept busy last week by a series of small fires.
Three of these occurred along railroad tracks. On consecutive days -- Tuesday, Wednesday …
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Firefighters with the Mexico Public Safety Department were kept busy last week by a series of small fires.
Three of these occurred along railroad tracks. On consecutive days -- Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday -- crews located flames at what they believed to be campsites next to the rights of way.
The fires on Tuesday and Wednesday were at unattended sites along the Kansas City Southern-Norfolk Southern line near the 1100 block of West Monroe Street. The flames were knocked down before they could spread.
On Thursday crews were called to the Audrain County Fairgrounds for a reported fire. Instead, they found another unattended campsite burning, this time with clothes and bedding nearby, next to the Ozark Valley Railroad tracks.
Crews were able to prevent flames from reaching nearby properties, but the personal belongings were consumed before they could extinguish the fire.
There were no injuries from any of these incidents. Afterward MPSD Major Bryce Mesko reminded residents that use of railroad property amounts to trespassing.
“That includes crossing the tracks in unauthorized areas and using the right of ways and tree lines for any reason,” he said.
On Friday morning fire crews returned to the area near the fairgrounds. An electrical fire at the Mexico YMCA sparked and dropped flaming material onto the basketball court.
YMCA staff quickly evacuated the building and the fire detection system activated properly.
“Electricity to the light was shut off and the burning material on the gym floor was extinguished,” Mesko reported.
Again there were no injuries.
