WEST HAVEN -- The smell of burned rubber and wisps of smoke remained along with the charred frames of more than 20 cars and one boat damaged in a blaze spread by wind and dry grass in a field Saturday.
Ken Gomm said he'd spent half an hour in a field on his property at 2457 W. 3300 South, trying to start a 1997 Pontiac Bonneville that used to be his personal car.
"We put gas in it, jumped it and put batteries in, all the things you have to do to bring it back to life (after it sat unused for a while)," he said.
"We finally got it running, but as soon as we got it running, I saw smoke coming from around the car. I had a little helper with me. I said, 'What's going on?' and he said, 'It's on fire, move it!' I pulled it up about 15 or 20 feet and all I did was spread the fire around."
The blaze was an accident caused by the catalytic converter igniting the brush, Gomm said.
"It got wind, and with this dry brush, it just went crazy. There was no way to stop it," he said.
The wind pushed the fire away from buildings and the home on the property his family has owned for years.
Gomm, 74, said he holds the title on every vehicle on his property. He restores them and sells them.
After the blaze, many of the vehicles had dropped their axles to the ground on tires torched down to thin spools of wire.
Gomm counted 22 vehicles damaged to some extent by the blaze.
He'd invested $27,000 in one car, $10,000 in another and $5,000 in two more, Gomm said. The rest he estimated at between $500 and $1,000 each.
Fifty-five cars were on the property, plus the now-charred and destroyed boat.
A few of the vehicles may be salvageable, Gomm said.
The fire started around 2 p.m., said Weber Fire District Capt. Chuck Stokes.
No structures were damaged and no one was injured, he said.
Weber Fire District was assisted by the Roy and Ogden fire departments. Two ladder trucks, three engines and four brush trucks responded.
The value of the damaged cars and boat has not been determined, Stokes said.
The fire remains under investigation. Seventeen firefighters responded and were at the scene for at least four hours. It took about 20 minutes to knock down the fire and an hour to control it completely, said Weber Fire District Capt. Brian Lutz.
As the weather warms, people need to be aware of dry grasses and brush as they work, Lutz said. The obvious fire-safety recommendation is to move vehicles away from high grass or mow the grass, and make sure no combustibles are around the work area.
"They're coming out of the (winter) weather with old brush around, and they want to get ready for the spring. They need to make sure everything is safe before they start anything mechanical."
Standard-Examiner reporter Scott Schwebke contributed to this article.
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WEST HAVEN -- A fire has damaged 28 vehicles and boat in West Haven on Saturday afternoon.
The fire happened around 2 p.m. in a field at about 2500 West and 3300 South, said Capt. Chuck Stokes of the Weber Fire District.
The property owner was working on a vehicle in the field when the blaze broke out.
Fire destroyed that vehicle and spread to others as well as a boat that were stored in the field nearby. It also burned about two acres. No structures were damaged and no one was injured.
The Weber Fire District was assisted by the Roy and Ogden Fire Department. The value of the damaged cars and boat have not been determined, said Stokes. The fire remains under investigation. Seventeen firefighters responded and remained at the scene for at least four hours.
Stokes said because of dry conditions people should be careful when burning ditch banks, fence lines and tree limbs.
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