Louisville, KY – According tot the Zoneton Fire Protection District, this unfortunate incident occurred around 6:11 p.m. Thursday.
Officials said that the fire was reported on South Park Hill in the Fairdale fire district.
Zoneton was one of the 10 fire departments taking 75 firefighters more than 11 hours to contain the fire. The fire was estimated to involve over 80 acres.
South Park hill is south of the Gene Snyder between South Park Road and Interstate 65 in southern Jefferson County.
The closest the fire came to occupied homes was about 800 feet. For those familiar with the 841/I-65 area, we were directly under the two large radio towers.
Fires like these are very labor intensive. Access to the fire was difficult as we cannot get our all-terrain vehicles close enough to use their pumps.
It is all hand work, using rakes, blowers, chain saws and back-pack extinguishers. Firefighters often trek several hundred yards over difficult to get to the fire line. Even worse, this was at night so visibility was difficult.
The objective was to separate the unburned fuel from the fire front to contain the fire. While the fire was contained, smoldering areas remained, so neighbors may see and smoke for a while, which is normal.
