Firefighters from 13 departments battled a fire for four days on Malone Road in Salineville. (Photo by Kristi R. Garabrandt)

SALINEVILLE ­– Firefighters continued over the weekend battling a brush fire which started in the early hours of Wednesday morning at 20410 Malone Road.

According to Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) trackers approximately 12 acres were burned.

Nearly 60 firefighters from nine departments and crews from ODNR spent 13 hours trying to bring the fire under control Wednesday. On Thursday, Salineville Fire Department responded back to the scene for flare-ups.

Sunday marked the fourth day that multiple departments have been on the scene due to the fire rekindling.

Wind, dry leaves and peat moss –along with the location of the fire and the terrain — have made controlling the fire challenging.

With the fire burning down in a ravine, access with fire trucks and typical firefighting equipment was limited. Side-by-sides and utility vehicles transported firefighters and equipment to the scene.

According to ODNR Fernwood State Forest manager Ryan Zeisler, the fire was deep in the woods making it difficult for crews to have access to with water and tools. He indicted late Saturday that the fire was under control. He also noted that the fire had been burning underground. At some point Saturday evening it came up from the ground and started burning again.

Fire firefighters –some on the scene for more than 22 hours — were called out Saturday night about 8 p.m. At approximately 2 a.m., Fire Chief Jeremiah Cole (Highlandtown Volunteer Fire Department and Incident Commander for the fire) sent some of the responding firefighters home to rest to return in the morning. Firefighters from Highlandtown and Wellsville volunteer fire departments remained on the scene through the night.

It took 58 firefighters responding from 13 fire departments in two counties, along two crews and a forest manager from ODNR Division of Forestry, to bring the fire under control.

Departments responding included Highlandtown, Salineville, Franklin Township, Wellsville, West Point, Glenmoor, Irondale, Liverpool Township, East Palestine, Fox Township, Pottery Addition, Stratton, Empire and Bergholz.

The East Palestine FD provided a drone so firefighters could get an aerial view of what they were confronting.

Zeisler said he and Cole discussed the option of using a direct attack with hand lines and wet lines or using an indirect attack with a wide perimeter and hoping for the best.

They opted for indirect method and put a wide fire break known as dozer lines along the entire perimeter of the burn area. Dozer lines are wide paths stripped of grass or anything else down to bare soil giving the fire nothing to continue burning on.

“Our chances of fire behavior if something were to restart should be low especially with the wind not being around 15 mph like it was yesterday,” Zeisler said.

He stressed all the assistance and solid firefighting provided by the response units which were busy Saturday putting down fire breaks..

The exact cause of the fire is unknown. Any investigation later would be by ODNR’s law enforcement staff.

A potential investigation could occur. Zeisler and Cole want everyone to be aware of the statewide burn ban in effect.

“We haven’t had rain for a very long time and the whole state of Ohio has been in a drought for about the past three months,” Zeisler said.

He also noted that with the low relative humidity the leaves, grass and trees are lacking moisture, and this along with high winds played a role in the fire.

Zeisler said that it has been a busy week for all fire services across the state with the drought. The ODNR has been assisting other fire departments with brush fires. On Saturday, they were on a 30-acre brush fire in Jefferson County near Smithfield working to make a fire containment line.

A West Virginia TV news station reported that many of West Virginia’s counties are putting burn bans into immediate effect due to the brush fires happening in Hancock, Washington and Jefferson counties and departments from West Virginia responding to them.

kgabrandt@mojonews.com