Firefighter injured in blaze west of Goodrich

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A fire Sunday near Goodrich was extinguished a few times and has one firefighter battling injuries in the hospital.

“It is the old Shell pump station, where those tanks are sitting about two or three miles west of Goodrich,” Livingston Fire Chief Corky Cochran explained. “On the back side of that complex outside of the fence, they had a transformer that blew up and dropped fire down in the grass. The wind and breeze was blowing out of the north and it pushed the fire into the complex and covered a pretty large area of a couple of acres. It didn’t burn any structures, but it threatened getting outside of that fenced area, which could have carried it on to some houses.”

The fire chief said the flames were maintained in the vegetation and wooded areas, and did not reach structures within the facility. Firefighters remained at the scene for three hours trying to extinguish hotspots.

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“When we left there, there was not a trickle of smoke anywhere,” Cochran said. “Then, (Monday) morning about 5:30 a.m., we got a call that some of that vegetation had reignited. They had to go back out there for a couple of hours and doused it down.”

Departments from Livingston, Goodrich, Holiday Lake Estates, and Scenic Loop all responded to the fire, while Onalaska VFD traveled to Livingston to cover that area for the LVFD in case of a call. Camilla VFD also was on the scene for Monday morning’s call.

One Goodrich volunteer firefighter was injured Sunday. Ryan Nelson was said to be pinned between a tree and brush truck, and is currently in stable condition, according to family members. He is expected to have an extensive recovery with several injuries, under hospital care after being airlifted to Kingwood.

Cochran said that Nelson, his family, and the Goodrich Fire Department should be in everyone’s thoughts and prayers.