A wind-driven grass fire quickly burned through at least 2 acres of tall tinder-dry brush on Brightwood Road, just south of Avenue 21 about 1:30 Monday afternoon. No injuries were reported.
Patrick Kelly said he didn’t recall hitting anything specific while mowing the lot, but just looked up and saw the smoke starting, and grabbed his fire extinguisher off the tractor.
“It spread too fast. There wasn’t anything I could do. The wind was pushing it through the tall dry grass and the (wall of) flames was about 10 feet high, at one point,” he said.
Kelly said he has mowed at least 1,000 vacant lots over the years to help owners comply with fire clearance ordinances, and had never started a fire with his equipment...