Beeville firemen did not know exactly what to expect when they were called to put out a small grass fire on State Highway 359 just outside of Tynan last Friday.

Shortly before 11 a.m. the radio call mentioned a power line and a vehicle underneath it. Inside, the dispatcher said, a man sat.

When the Beeville Fire Department trucks arrived at the scene, they found a farm hand sitting in the cab of a tractor. Behind the tractor a large cotton trailer had snagged power lines on the north side of the highway, snapped a utility pole and the lines were sitting against the baling machinery of the trailer.

The driver was afraid to get out of the vehicle. He had no idea if the lines were sending high voltage through the trailer and tractor.

Apparently, the driver was on his way to cotton fields on the Menger Farms property.

Firemen stood by as workers from American Electric Power were called to the scene. Fire Chief Donald Morris suggested that the power be cut off but AEP workers decided against that.

Using a truck with a cherry picker and a fiberglass pole with an attachment to safely lift a power line, the AEP personnel managed to get the lines out of the way while the tractor driver carefully and slowly backed out from under the lines.

It took rescuers a little more than an hour to get the tractor driver to safety and traffic moving on the highway again.

In another incident, firemen rushed to a small oil tank fire on the Ottar Beck lease on County Road 208 north of Normanna at about 10:30 Monday morning.

They were on the scene only about a half hour, dousing the flames and allowing workers to get in and clean up the area.

Gary Kent is a reporter at the Bee-Picayune and can be reached at 358-2550, ext. 120, or at reporter@mySouTex.com.