Staff Reports
Columbus firefighters were called to Mill Race Park to extinguish a smoldering fire underneath the park’s covered bridge.
Firefighters used water and foam to make sure the smoldering fire was extinguished, said Capt. Mike Wilson, Columbus Fire Department spokesman. When firefighters arrived at 8:45 a.m. Monday, the fire was out and there was some minor charring on the concrete under the bridge, he said.
The wood structure has a steel support system underneath it, and the bridge carries vehicle traffic through the park.
The fire is being attributed to an illegal burn, Wilson said. Open burning in Mill Race Park is prohibited with the exception of fires on cooking grills scattered throughout the park, he said.
A historic covered bridge in the park was destroyed by fire on Nov. 30, 1985. At the time, it was believed to be the last surviving wooden covered bridge in Bartholomew County.
The fire in 1985 started when two boys who had waded into floodwaters in the park got on the bridge and started a small fire to dry out their clothes. They had believed the embers were cold when they left, but by 3:35 a.m. on Nov. 30, 1985, the bridge was fully engulfed in flames.
Community volunteers and the Columbus Parks and Recreation Department located a covered bridge in Indianapolis stored in a barn that once stood near Richmond dating to 1862. Local officials agreed to pay the Lilly Foundation, which owned the structure, what it cost to build the bridge back in 1862, which was $1,350.
The total cost of moving and re-constructing the bridge was much more $110,000, but eventually insurance covered the majority of the overall costs.
The first bridge in the park, built in 1880, was moved from Clifty Creek on Azalia Road in the mid-1960s, when area schoolchildren raised $13,000 to move the 105-foot-long bridge to the park.
