Black smoke darkened the sky on the east side of Poplar Bluff about 4 p.m. Thursday prompting callers to alert emergency responders. No one was able to provide an exact location, but Poplar Bluff firefighters soon tracked down the source at the city landfill/yard waste collection site at F Street and County Road 604.
The smoke was created by a pile of burning tires. Most of the tires were collected by the Poplar Bluff Street Department from ditches.
The person or persons who set the tires on fire are unknown, city officials said.
According to Battalion Chief Kevin D. Edgar’s report, “We were notified of a large cloud of smoke located east of town. We drove to investigate the smoke and found a large pile of tires and a grassy field on fire at the city dump.”
The two acres burned were near farmland and a field. The cause of the fire was undetermined.
The five firefighters used a booster line and approximately 1,600 gallons of water to extinguish the grass and tire fires, Edgar’s report stated. Firefighters used two trucks and spent more than an hour and a half at the scene.