A small crew of Buffalo Volunteer Fire Department firefighters douses the remaining hot spots at one of 11 brush fires that broke out Monday afternoon on Dravo Road. At least a dozen other firefighters and Forestry Commission members were just a half mile away tackling a bigger fire. Labor Day was anything but restful for some Cherokee County volunteer firefighters and the South Carolina Forestry Commission.

Buffalo Volunteer firefighters responding to a brush fire along Dravo Road would soon learn after their arrival that a lot of labor would be required, as they weren't dealing with just one brush fire but 11 separate blazes.

Buffalo Volunteer Fire Department Chief Josh Parker said he had never before seen an incident like this, as firefighters kept getting new reports of additional fires along the same road. Due to the way the fires were spread out along Dravo Road, Parker said his first thought was that someone was shooting fireworks out of a moving car, igniting brush fires along the way.

Witnesses would lead firefighters to the real cause, though. Parker said a logging company's truck was towing an equipment trailer that had lost a tire and was running on a bare rim, creating heat and sparks that set the grass and brush on fire as the truck traveled along the road.

Damage was limited to wooded areas and grassy fields and Parker said there were no reports of structure damage or injuries.

The first of the fires was reported at about 1:45 p.m. near the Dravo Road and Highway 18. The fire spread up the hillside and consumed about an acre of vegetation.

Ten more brush fires were fought along the entire length of Dravo Road, including seven in a 2-mile stretch.

Buffalo Volunteer Fire Department members came out in full force, most of them having already spent the morning at the department's fire station for their Labor Day fundraising barbecue and hash sale.

Initially unsure where the spark-inducing vehicle was headed, Parker had Cleveland County, N.C., notified to have firefighters there check the roadways near the state line. Finding no fires along Cleveland County roadways, members of the Shanghai Volunteer Fire Department in North Carolina crossed the border to assist the Buffalo Fire Department.

The South Carolina Forestry Commission also responded to the scene with two bulldozers to help cut control lines through the brush at three of the locations to stop the fires from spreading.

"I've seen (this type of thing) happen before from a chain dragging behind a car or truck, hitting the pavement and causing sparks," said Roy Boyd, Forester for Cherokee, Chester and York counties. "When it starts setting fires like that, you know it's dry."

Cherokee County's drought status recently was upgraded by the state's drought response committee.

While there are no state bans on burning, Boyd said he hoped people would take precautions and postpone burning plans until some rainfall occurs.

Parker said one of the fires covered an acre, five of the fires each covered about a half acre of land, and the remaining five fires each were contained to about a tenth of an acre.

Firefighters spent about four hours fighting the blazes during the initial operations and were called out again later at night to extinguish flareups.