Fire at Little General Ranch claims trailer
BEATTY - The source of a large column of black smoke that could be seen early Sunday afternoon just north of Beatty was a structure fire on the Little General Ranch.
When Beatty volunteer firefighters arrived, they found a house trailer fully engulfed in flame, but the trailer was unoccupied, having been used for storage.
Ranch occupant Ken Carter said that they had been planning to demolish the trailer anyway so it was decided that the best course of action was to let the fire burn to completion, as there would then be less debris to clean up. With that decided, the firefighters concentrated their efforts on wetting down the surrounding area to keep the fire from spreading.
As for the probable cause of the fire, Carter said he had been burning weeds next to the trailer earlier in the day and had hosed them down, but they evidently had re-ignited.
Horses in nearby corrals did not seem to be bothered by the event.
