Bath Township Fire Department was called to a barn fire on the 5600 block of Ottawa Rd earlier Sunday evening (12/13/18).
A passerby called in a structure fire just after 5 pm, after noticing a small barn on fire. Upon arrival, firefighters learned from the owner that it had been set intentionally to get rid of the barn material.
There were no injuries and no value was lost in the flames, but even though the man wanted the material burned the department had to put out the fire because he did not have a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Usually rural fires are more difficult to tackle because water has to be transported to the location but thanks to a water main that was installed in 2015 to bring Lima water to Cairo firefighters were able to extinguish the flames quickly.
"Most of the time on barn fires it's a non-hydrant area and so we have water problems but they just put a new water line up into Cairo and this is crossing up into their district so we can use their water off their fire hydrant mines," said Capt. Bill Stippich with Bath Twp. Fire. "That was the good part. Usually rural fires are hard, this one was easy."
The man did break the law by burning the structure without a permit but will not face charges because he was unaware of the law and does not pose a threat to repeat the incident.
Cairo-Monroe Township Fire Dept. assisted Bath on scene with manpower.
