While units from surrounding jurisdictions were battling a house fire on Jade Lane in Mechanicsville company 2’s area, St.Mary’s alerted Mechanicsville, Hughesville and Laplata to a reported woods fire in the area of 29653 Whalen Road at 14:24hrs

First arriving Hughesville Engine 25 advise Charles County Communications that they were on the scene of a large field fire with extension into the woods and had several large round hay bales on fire (25 bales) and requested a second alarm. The fire was determined to be in Charles County at the end of Whalen Road (every other address on that road is in St.Mary’s County).

Units on the scene battled the fire for 4 hours before completely extinguishing it. The soaked ground hampered units from accessing some areas and resulted in several units becoming stuck in the middle of the fields. By the time the fire had been extinguished a compliment of 4 alarms responded and 13 acres of land was charred. Units cleared at 18:03hrs

Special thanks to Benedict and Bel Alton for providing extra class “A” foam to support Nanjemoy’s engine operation.