Martin County firefighters have spent more than a dozen hours battling a mulch fire that sparked west of Hobe Sound last night.

The fire has been contained to an area of about 1 1/2 acres off Bridge Road and Powerline Avenue, Martin County Fire Rescue spokesman Jon Belding said this morning.

Now crews are working with the Martin County engineering and solid waste departments to haul in heavy equipment to separate unburned tree branches from burning material, Belding said.

Firefighters were called at about 8:30 p.m., Belding said. What sparked the blaze is unknown.

The blaze is located on a roughly 40-acre parcel recently acquired by the county, Belding said.

Fred Pierno in July 2007, when he was working to put out a small brush fire near the Holly Creek subdivision, just off Jensen Beach Boulevard. Photo by Vada Mossavat.

Fellow firefighters stood at Pierno’s bedside Wednesday as the Martin County Fire Rescue veteran lost a battle with Hepatitis C complications at his Port St. Lucie home.

“He died with his friends and his crew,” fire rescue spokesman Jon Belding said on Friday.

Afterward, Pierno’s friends remembered his commitment to Martin County Fire Rescue. Others said they considered the Vietnam War veteran a hero.

But Pierno, 55, also leaves behind a legacy of a different sort — he is the department’s first to die in the line of duty.
(more…)

INDIANTOWN — No one was injured in a fire that evacuated a shuttered tile company warehouse in Indiantown this morning.

The fire was reported to Martin County Fire Rescue official at about 10:35 a.m. and was under control a half-hour later, Fire Rescue spokesman Jon Belding said.

The fire was contained to a warehouse at Entegra Tile Production at 15700 S.W. Farm Road. Four construction workers at the site had to evacuate the warehouse as a result of the fire, Belding said. (more…)