Witnesses Put Out Roadside Fire North of Denbigh

Jul 12, 2023

Murray Thrasher, from the Denbigh area, was at home on July 9^th, working on his truck at the driveway to his house.

”A small car pulled my driveway. Two young people told me about a fire and that a motocross rider had fallen off his bike, and sparks caused the fire from the wheel rim. The fire was happening down the road about a half kilometre away,” he said in an email on Tuesday.

He tried to determine the exact location of the fire but said that he wasn't taking it too seriously because he was led to believe the fire was on the swamp side of the road, which would contain it till the fire department arrived. His wife Bev came out the porch door wanting to know what was happening, and he told her to call 911 and report a fire.

“But then I started to smell the smoke as I walked to the highway and saw it coming from around the corner. Traffic in both directions was slowing down in that vicinity. As I approached the location, three motocross bikers were throwing dirt from the roadside, others were collecting water from a swamp across the road, water was been thrown onto the fire, and others were slapping at it with their clothing, but the fire was still advancing toward the woods,” he recalled.

He asked a traveller to drive him back to his house to get a fire extinguisher from the laundry room. He then jumped into his own truck and bombed down the road in a nick of time.

“The fire was heading into the woods and started up the base of a pine tree. I ran through the burnt grass in my sandals and swim trunks, snuffing the fire as I went, got to the bottom of the tree where the forest was ready to ignite, and nailed her with everything in the cylinder.”

The auxiliary fire volunteers from Denbigh were starting to arrive at that point and took control over the scene.

“What really happened was that a truck pulling a loaded wagon blew a tire, and sparks from the rim caused the fire. The three motocross riders saw this and caught up to him to stop his advance. One of the riders turned around and headed back to deal with the fire, and he wiped out his bike on the side of the road. Injured, he continued to battle the fire.

“Without these brave passer-by people, the forest would have been ablaze. I wish I had their names to share because we owe them a debt of gratitude,” said Murray Thrasher.