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10 - CAPE GAZETTE, Friday, June 20 - June 26, 1997
Mysterious fire burns more than 15 acres of Lewes Beach marsh
Scientist discounts
flaming meteorite
as cause of blaze
By Kerry Kester
The State Fire Marshal's office
has not determined the cause of
the fire that destroyed between 15
and 20 acres of marshland along
the Lewes Canal on Friday, June
13. A Lewes resident who wit-
nessed the fire's onset from across
the canal, however, said he saw a
meteorite-like object land mo-
ments before the marsh was set
ablaze in what appeared to be the
area near the fire.
"! saw what set the fire." said
Ed Connor, a Lewes retiree who
lives across from where the fire
occurred. "I surmise a
meteor[ite]" Connor said he
awoke at approximately 2:30 or
2:45 a.m., a short while before the
fire was called in to 91 I.
"'My wife also saw a bright
light," said Connor. "We both
saw light from our room. It
crossed the sk3; it was coming
down vertically - almost straight
down. It was absolutely round,
spherical like a ball. I would
judge it was the size of a soccer
ball.
"It was on fire, flaming red.
What was coming down was a
perfectly round object. It was
very bright and very red. I didn't
see it land...l thought it went into
the bay."
According to Gene Shoemaker.
scientist emeritus at the U.S. Geo-
logical Survey in Flagstaff. Ariz.
and staff member at the Lowell
C.onservatory, meteorites break-
ing through the atmosphere and
landing on earth are not rare oc-
currences.
Shoemaker said it is very com-
mon for people to see meteorites
in the sky that still appear incan-
descent. What Connor saw, he
said. is a very common percep-
tion. although the sightings are not
unlike optical illusions. The me-
teorites appear to be falling and
alighting on earth, he said,-but in
fact they are generally 50 or more
miles away.
When a meteorite touches
Earth. said Shoemaker. it is not on
fire. "It's certainly not glowing at
the ume it reaches the ground." he
said.
"It's not incandescent...unless
it's a very big object that would
make a crater. Meteorites that fall
on the ground are not very hot,
and they do not start fires."
Meteorites have been known to
fall into houses or drop on cars, he
said. They simply are no longer
retaining intense heat at that point.
"'By the time it reaches the
ground, it's at free-fall velocity,"
said Shoemaker. "It is no longer
producing a shock wave in the at-
mosphere."
Combine bearing failure sets
By Dennis Forney
A bearmg on a combine tarvesting barley
failed on Tuesday, June 17 setting 30 acres
of straw afire and threatening a farm house.
a barn full of hay, and two rabbit dogs.
Saving the house, the dogs and the barn,
and bringing the quickly spreading fires un-
der control, required eight fire departments
on the scene and six other fire departments
to cover theirstations.
Lewes Fire Department President Lou
Rickards said the field fire at Carlton
Wells's farm on R. 258 near Steamboat
Landing on the Broadkill River.came into
Lewes at 2:03 p.m. Wells said a wheel
bearing on a combine cutting barley on the
farm failed, dropping hot pieces of metal
into the field and starting fires in a number
Hundred fought blaze
The Lewes Volunteer Fire De-
partment received the first alarm
for the marsh fire at approximate-
ly 3:15 a.m., said Lou Rickards,
president of the fire company.
The fire was located along the
canal parallel to the Cedar Avenue
and Odessa Street intersection.
"'While enroute to the fire, they
could see a large glow," Said
Rickards; so Wally Evans, fire
chief, immediately called for as-
sistance from the Milton and Re-
hoboth fire departments. "As the
fire progressed, a dozen homes
were in danger." he said. "A half
dozen homes were evacuated."
As the fire progressed, the Indi-
an River Volunteer Fire Company
from Oak Orchard joined the oth-
er crews, while the Georgetown
Volunteer Fire Company covered
both Lewes fire stations and the
Bethany Beach Volunteer Fire
Company covered both Rehoboth
fire stations.
"The fire was totally out of con-
trol until about 7:30 a.m.," said
Rickards. The U.S. Coast Guard
sent a cutter, and guardsmen
sprayed the fire from a deck gun,
while the Milton firefighters sent
their marine unit to shower water
on the blaze.
While firefighters were battling
the inferno from the canal, the
Delaware State Forestry Service
used bulldozers and plows on the
shore, cutting fire trenches from
of locations.
"The wind's got things pretty dry," said
Wells, "but in this case we were lucky that
it blew the fire into the part of the field that
had already been cut. We lost 25 to 30
acres of straw but the uncut barley was
saved."
Rickards said he could see smoke that
looked like a mushroom cloud from his
house on Rt. 24 near Love Creek when he
got into his truck to respond to the blaze.
"When Chief Wally Evans arrived on the
scene the wind had blown embers "to three
locations," said Rickards. "There were
three seaparate large fires underway qehen
the first Lewes engines arrived. That's
when Evans put out the call for more com-
panies to assist. He had to commit the first
Kerry Kester photo
Allen Chorman, Inc.'s cropduster sprays 100 gallons of wa-
ter a second onto the burning Lewes marsh.
where they loaded from their own
water supply.
The planes, said Chorman, have
a capacity for dumping 100 gal-
lons per second. Most of the runs
were one plane at a time, sweep-
"ing across the marshland. "In a
real concentrated area, we did it in
formation," he said. "That was
pretty effective. The Lewes Fire
Department was directing from
the ground, plus we went over
what we saw from smoke."
Lewes firefighters remained at
the scene until 9 a.m., wetting the
hot spots, said Rickards, before
calling it a night and returning to
the fire station. However, it be-
came apparent that the time away
Continued on page 18
the ground. The fire was also at-
tacked from the air, as AI Chor-
man 'of Allen Chorman, Inc., sent
three planes to spray from above.
"They dropped loads of water
on the areas that were not accessi-
ble by foot," said Rickards. At the
height of the fire, he said, over
100 firefighters and 24 pieces of
equipment were warring against
the wildfire.
Chorman said Jeff Chorman.
18, and Stanley Seija, Jr., 50, as
well as himself, made up the
three-plane crew that dropped
nine loads of water on the blaze.
Each load, he said, contained
about 350 gallons of water. Fol-
lowing a load, the planes returned
to Ockels Airport near Milton,
barley field ablaze near .Steamboat
six pieces at the scene to keeping the fire
from getting at a farm house, a barn full of
hay and a dog pen with two beagle puppies.
The fire came to within 20 feet of the barn
and the house. Bill Buckaloo and Richard
Rinehart were able to refuse the puppies
from the pen. I think it was an outstanding
effort to save the house, the barn and the
J puppies," said Rickards. "Really it was. a
great effort by everyone involved."
Because of the heat of the wind-driven
fire, Sussex County's paramedics set up a
rehabilitation ambulance at the scene and
treated at least one volunteer for heat ex-
haustion.
Riekards noted that 100 firefighters were
on the scene with 25 pieces of equipment.
In addition to Lewes, volunteers responded
Landing,
from Milton, Rehoboth Beach, Bethany
Beach, Indian River, Georgetown, Slaugh-
ter Beach, and Ellendale fire departments.
Millsboro covered for Lewes, Ocean City
covered for Bethany Beach, Millville cov-
ered for Rehoboth Beach, Milford covered
for Milton, Greenwood covered for Ellen-
dale, and Bridgeville covered for George-
town.
"Millsboro, Georgetown and Milton each
had alarms in their own coverage areas
while they were helping Lewes," said
Rickards.
"That shows you how important the
back-up system is."
Rickltrds noted that dry conditions con-
tinue to contribute to dangerous fire oppor-
tunities.
Convention
Continued from page 1
of Atlantic Sands, Karen Zagarian
of the Rusty Rudder and Everhart.
"W.e came up with a cost savings
program, assistance for promoting
their booths and encouragement to
frequent retail shops through the
Star Guest program," Ev.erhart ex-
plained.
The second presentation, with
these incentives at the forefront.
was made by all-the members of
the task force to the site selection
committee.
The Rehoboth contingent also
offered to appear before every fire
company in the state, sending pre-
sentation letters to each of them,
"wanting them to know we love
and appreciate them."
They also sent letters from Sus-
sex Administrator Bob Stickels
and the Sussex County Conven-
tion and Tourism Commission in
support of keeping the conference
in Rehoboth and Dewey beaches.
But a number of companies
didn't bother to invite the task
force to make its presentation, and
when the vote was taken by the
executive committee last week.
Kent won out by a slim margin of
68 to Rehoboth's 59 votes. (New
Castle didn't put in a bid to host
the conference for the next three
years.)
As Doyle explains it. Kent
County "'came out with its glans
ablazin" at the first presentation
which Everhart made alone• (She
explained the fact that she went
unaccompanied was a "break-
down in communications" with
other resort officials).
"Carol was at a disadvantage,
although she came up with some
suggestions for family incentives
which were good. Some of the
guys were upset with some things
that happened the last few years,
such as disparaging comments by
some merchants about the firemen
and that stuck:in their minds.
They felt the firefighters didn't
want them there," Doyle said.
He went on to explain that the
DVFA's executive committee is
comprised of two votes "per com-'
pany, but many companies ended
up with only one member when
the vote was cast, due to some
confusion.
Kent County companies stuck
together and voted for Dover, but
both New Castle and Sussex
County split their votes. "The site
selection committee (of which he
is a member) thought; New Castle
would be the swing, vote, but not
Sussex.
"Basically, Sussex lost it for us,
even though it will have an eco-
nomic impact on the entire coun-
ty," Doyle said.
He also said that Stickels may
not be able to convince the coun-
cil to provide funding for the con-
ference as it has in the past, since
it won't be held in Sussex.
Lynn Rogers, former DVFA-
president, said as a Sussex County
Councilman he is "depressed" by
the decision and hopes someday
the conference will return to Sus-
sex County, with its 2,000 to
3,000 firefighters.
• Everhart noted that the majority
of the resort's businesses "appre-
ciated having them, especially the
accommodations," which received
tremendous economic impact, es-
pecially during the week. It was
just a few businesses we heard
bad reports about."
She praised the task force for its
commitment once they were total-
ly aware of just what was on the
line.
"They looked very hard at it and
ways to address it," Everhart said.
"We plan to hold another task
force meeting and talk about what
needs to be done to fill the void
and work to accomplish that. We
love "em and we want them back
in 2001," she added.
