Henrietta, N.Y. - All it takes is a spark for dry grass to go up in flames.
The dry, warm weather gets the blame for burning more than an acre of land in Penfield near Salt and Sweets Corners road Wednesday morning.
“Apparently they were bailing hay and a bearing on of the combine's wheels seized up and caused sparks to ignite the hay on fire,” Chief Chris Ebmeyer with the Penfield Fire District said.
Ebmeyer says this is the first major brush fire of the season for the Penfield Fire District.
“Typically that's a spring time and fall time scenario but with it being so hot and dry and no rain this is probably worse than it’s been all year,” Ebmeyer said.
“I think this summer has been as dry as I can remember in recent years,” Henrietta Fire Chief Jim Comstock said.
Chief Comstock says they are battling more brush fires, particularly along the highway, caused by cigarettes thrown from cars.
“We've had more fires on 390 this year than we've had in the last five years,” Chief Comstock said.
This season is proving to be a real scorcher for the Henrietta Fire district.
So far they've responded to 30 fires this summer.
There were only 26 brush fires for the entire year last year.
“If we don't get rain and it stays as dry as it has been, I'm sure we're going to continue to see more fires than we have in a typical year,” Chief Comstock said.
On Tuesday, two brush fires off of Interstate 490 in Penfield delayed traffic.
