Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

RICHMOND -- Firefighters -- and a well-placed swamp -- have largely thwarted a brush blaze on the Washington County Fairgrounds that ignited this afternoon from sparks caused by a caretaker's cutting metal with a demolition saw.

Grass caught fire and flames cut a path toward the northeast -- until the fire reached a swamp.

"That's what saved us -- the swamp was full of water," said Fred A. Stanley, the Hope Valley-Wyoming Fire District chief.

That, and some 35 firefighters from the Carolina, Charlestown, Ashaway, and Richmond-Carolina companies. This afternoon, a couple of firemen were spraying water on brush to tamp things down.

The fire began about 1:53 p.m. in woods at the far end of the fairgrounds parking lot, an estimated three football fields' distance from the nearest fairgrounds buildings.

Flames spread rapidly in part because of some hay stored in the area.

-- projo.com staff writers Michael P. McKinney and Brandie M. Jefferson, with reports from Journal staff writer Paul Davis

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