Three Firemen Treated for Heat Exhaustion
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ One fireman was treated at the scene and two others were admitted to Marshall Browning Hospital for heat exhaustion while fighting a three-hour field fire off Davisville Road east of Du Quoin Monday. The fire was being fought in 95-degree weather. The heat index was well over 100 degrees.
Du Quoin fire department spokesman Rick Loyd said the call came at 4 p.m. A hot engine or the exhaust from a utility truck owned by L.E. Meyers, Inc. caught a freshly cut wheat field on fire. A crew was performing electric utility service surveys in the area. The crew saw the fire, ran back to the truck and tried to strip the truck of as much equipment as possible. The truck was stranded by field mud and the fire.
A larger Du Quoin pumper was forced to stop at the end of a farm road used to access the field because of the mud in low spots from recent rains. Firefighters radioed the station for a more nimble 4-wheel drive brush truck. The Tamaroa Fire Department also dispatched its brush truck and water tanker to the scene.
A farmer used a tractor and disk to cut a circle around a disabled combine that was nearby to protect it from the spreading fire.
Loyd said the fire grew to about 80 acres. Firemen stopped the fire on the north and west. A tree line stopped the spread of the fire on the south and east.
It got hotter and hotter as the afternoon wore on.
Du Quoin firefighter David Hock was treated at the scene for heat exhaustion. Du Quoin firefighter Gene Skinner and Tamaroa firefighter Richard Valentine were transported from the scene by the Pinckneyville Ambulance Service to Marshall Browning Hospital where they were treated for heat exhaustion. They were later released.
A well-organized firefighting effort had the fire under control within two hours. Firemen continued to check for hot spots through the early evening hours and were comfortable with leaving the scene at approximately 7:30 p.m.
Firemen offered words of caution to anyone performing work in bone-dry field conditions, particularly during the current winter wheat harvest.