FRUITDALE — Volunteers from the Jackson Township and Fruitdale fire departments fought a second fire last night at a house that burned in December.

Jackson Township Chief Glenn Elmore said a passerby called it in. The house at 1008 Three Story Hill Road had been the home of Dustyn and Ashley Merriman and their four children, but it burned to the point of being unlivable just before Christmas.

Elmore said a contractor had been hired to bulldoze the remains of the house, and that person set the pile of debris on fire and left for the day. Firefighters got the call at about 7:45 p.m. Feb. 9 and didn’t leave the scene until almost 10:30 p.m.

The burn was illegal for several reasons, Elmore said: it was burning at night; it contained non-natural materials like mattresses, asphalt shingles, wiring, furniture and paint cans; and the excavator driver — who is a volunteer firefighter in a neighboring county — didn’t have a permit to do that kind of burn.

Elmore said the excavator driver returned to the scene and covered what was left of the burning site with dirt after firefighters had dumped 3,500 gallons of water on it.

Illegal burns are on the rise, Elmore said.

“I was actually in the health department ranting and raving about that this morning,” he said.

“And a lot of times the people are aware of it, but they continue to do it anyway.”

It’s illegal under state and county law to burn trash, a combination of trash and yard waste, or a pile of debris from clearing land without a state permit, he said.

In order for a burn to be legal, it needs to contain “clean” wood products without chemicals on them; it needs to be attended; and it should only be done during daylight hours unless it is a campfire or a ceremonial fire, Elmore said.

The “3-by-3” rule must also be followed for the size of the fire, and it should be built in a campfire ring or firepit or bordered by an earthen embankment, he said.

Landowners can get a construction burn permit from the state for bigger fires, he said.

Large, unpermitted, unattended fires pose a serious risk to what Elmore called “our No. 1 resource,” the Brown County woods. And that’s not the only danger.

“The danger thing last night was the cold temperatures. The water was freezing up. But there’s also a potential of one of the firefighters getting in a wreck coming to a scene because you don’t know what it is, running emergency and running into somebody. These unnecessary, illegal fires are really upsetting, at least from my standpoint,” Elmore said.

“There’s so many factors involved, not only the risk to firefighters responding, but also the toxic waste that it puts into our atmosphere.”