Firefighters from three departments doused a planned fire that spread faster than the property owner intended on Wednesday afternoon, April 10, on the north side of Highway 7 about 10 miles southwest of Baker City.

Nine volunteer firefighters, with four engines, responded to the blaze on the north side of the highway, said Buzz Harper, chief of the Keating Rural Fire Protection District.

The Greater Bowen and Baker rural fire protection districts each sent two fire engines to the blaze, which covered around 5 acres, Harper said.

Baker Dispatch recorded the call reporting the fire at 4:33 p.m.

Harper said the fire didn’t threaten any structures, and there were no injuries.

Gusty wind pushed the flames into dry, dead grass growing around piles of debris including aluminum and oil barrels, Harper said.

Firefighters worked for about an hour, until they were released by the property owner, he said.

At 8:35 p.m., dispatch had another report of a fire on the same property.

Harper said embers smoldered in the duff beneath a juniper tree. A crew from the Greater Bowen district doused the fire, which covered an area about 10 feet by 10 feet, Harper said.

He hopes the fire will remind property owners that fire can spread rapidly even during the early spring, when the ground is still moist.

“Fire is a good tool to use but it’s a dangerous thing,” Harper said. “We’re in the high desert. It doesn’t take long for things to dry out even after a rain. We get a lot of calls in the springtime for out-of-control prescribed burning.”

The Highway 7 fire wasn’t the final call of the day.

At 11:16 p.m. Wednesday, a Union Pacific Railroad employee on a freight train reported a fire next to the tracks north of Baker City.

Harper responded along with a crew from Baker Rural.

Harper said a fire along an irrigation ditch had spread to old railroad ties that had been stacked beside the tracks after being replaced.