NELSON COUNTY, Ky. (WDRB) -- A field of dry soybeans combined with a steady wind proved the perfect fuel for a fierce fire than burned about 50 acres of rural land northwest of Bardstown on Friday.
Jim Shulthise's house, north of Kentucky 245 near Deatsville Loop, was fine. The field next to it was completely burned.
"I was at the post office, and a friend of mine called me and said the depot is on fire, which I live in the old train station over here," Shulthise said. "Thomas Nelson High School in Bardstown. I could see the smoke from there."
Firefighters believe the My Old Kentucky Dinner Train somehow sparked the blaze as it passed along some rails nearby.
"It was quite a spectacle," Shulthise said. "I believe we had six fire departments respond, and they had it contained in what I would consider a very short time."
There's a reason why speed was crucial: There are multiple bourbon warehouses owned by both Maker's Mark and Heaven Hill Distillery just a short walk from the field that burned.
"The two warehouses that are right over here have bourbon in them, and if one of those goes, it would be a big spectacle," Shulthise said. "It would be very bad if one of those went up in flames."
Assistant Chief Neal Pyle, with Nelson County Fire Rescue, is breathing a sigh of relief too.
"Saw five separate fires myself when I arrived at the scene," he said.
As Pyle figures how a train may have caused this fire, he hopes it reminds the public to be careful in this drought-like dryness.
"When this wind gets up, it will spread fire very quickly," he said.
Even though there isn't a burn ban in Nelson County right now, Pyle doesn't think people should be burning until there's more rain.
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