The La Broquerie Fire Department was called out just before midnight Monday night. Chief Al Nadeau says it was a call that didn't need to happen, if the people who started it had given the fire department a heads up about burning off a field.

Fire Chief Alain Nadeau"It was a grass fire eight miles south of La Broquerie. It was a large field on fire. I'm not sure who lit it or why it was lit but I suggest, if farmers want to burn their fields off, because sometimes that is a necessary evil, to make arrangements with the fire department first and then we can notify the proper people before it's done."

Nadeau says people passing by such fires often call them in and, if the fire department is not aware that it is a planned burn, they have to respond and that creates significant extra work for the volunteer fire department.

"We have to be notified in advance if it's an intentional fire and then maybe we could have let this burn because we knew the rain was coming and the wind was down."

He notes this call came in just hours after the La Broquerie Fire Department attended to a mobile home fire.