Officials respond to rash of fires to start the new year

By Randy Bell

2026 got off to a hot start in Clinton – and not in a good way. As of January 6, the Clinton Fire Department had responded to fourteen fires in the city since New Year’s Eve. Two of those were house fires caused by fireworks, which are prohibited within the city limits.

Fire Chief Levius Buckley says the trouble actually began about a week before Christmas during some dry and windy weather.

“We had some unauthorized burning, land clearing, and they didn’t get it approved,” Buckley says. “That kind of kicked it off. And then, into New Year’s Eve, fireworks and some folks just burning limbs and it getting away from them with the wind and all that.”

One of the house fires in the Trailwood area broke out after some sticks used to light fireworks were tossed into a trash can in the garage.

“It heated up the garbage can, caught that on fire, caught a car on fire [which] caught the garage on fire,” Buckley says.

Another house fire in the Cherry Park neighborhood on New Year’s Day also was linked to fireworks.

“It affected cars, yards, burned down a shed [and] did some damage to a house, as well.”

The chief says other homes have been threatened by fast-moving grass and woods fires since the first of the year.

“We were constantly chasing them.”

On January 1, the City issued a burn ban, which was to be in effect until further notice and has recently been lifted. But Buckley says the Fire Department got more complaints about illegal outdoor burning after the ban than before.