The volunteers of the Brussels-Union-Gardner Fire Department put in a full day of work Friday as they responded to three separate calls.
The first call came at approximately 7:15 p.m. from the intersection of County DK and County Y near Namur. BUG Assistant Fire Chief Jim Wautier said a bearing on a baler overheated and caught fire. The straw it was baling also ignited, and the fire spread across several acres before reaching a nearby wooded area, where pine needles and other brush caught fire.
In addition to B.U.G's four trucks that responded, the Southern Door Fire Department assisted by bringing additional personnel, a brush truck and a UTV. Wautier said firefighters remained on the scene for nearly three hours.
At approximately 9 p.m., emergency personnel responded to Fox Lane in Gardner, where an ATV overturned, leaving a man unconscious. He was later transported to a hospital for treatment.
As that call was wrapping up, BUG firefighters were dispatched to a structure fire on Sun N Surf Drive in the Town of Union. According to Wautier, the cottage owners had finished using a fire pit on their deck, placed the cover over it and went inside. Shortly afterward, they discovered the ashes from the fire pit had apparently ignited the plastic decking before the fire spread to the exterior of the home.
B.U.G, the Southern Door Fire Department and other departments from Door and Kewaunee counties helped extinguish the blaze, which took approximately four hours. Wautier estimated the fire trucks were able to return to the station by 1:30 a.m.
