Rash Of Fires In Zion Park
ZION, Ill. (STMW) - Authorities in north suburban Zion are keeping a special eye on Beulah Park after fires there last week, including three on Friday.
Zion Fire and Rescue Department called in six other fire departments to help put out the three fires set in the park.
"We had about four acres burned," Battalion Chief Eric Troy said.
"We called for quite a bit of help because we needed a lot of people," he said.
Antioch, Beach Park, Newport, Winthrop Harbor, Waukegan and Pleasant Prairie, Wis., all sent help to the scene, while Gurnee, Antioch and North Chicago manned their stations.
"Thankfully, it was a slow-moving fire," said troy, but the terrain in the park includes a number of deep ravines, some 40 to 50 feet deep. That complicated things," Troy said.
Firefighters also had to worry about some of the homes at the edge of the park, but there were no evacuations and no injuries.
Firefighters used water and smothering techniques to extinguish the leaves.
The department also noted that opening burning is not allowed in the city.
Police were looking for youths who may have set the fires, but no one was been arrested in the case, Troy said. The department received a call about the latest fire just before 4 p.m. Friday. A smaller fire had been set earlier in the week.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
