Firefighters from Ashford and Cowarts were called to put out a number of outdoor fires Tuesday.

Funny thing is they didn't have to travel far to do it.

"There was 3 fires on this road at one time today," says Ashford Fire Chief Jimmy Posey.

The trio of fires ignited on Ashford Road. Two of the fires were small, but a blaze just down the road from Wiregrass Electric Co-Op took firefighters more than an hour to put out.

Hours later smoke was still rising, and small flames shot from the planted pine forest. The Alabama Forestry Commission aided Ashford Fire in plowing a fire line to keep the flames from spreading through the field.

The proximity of the fires lends to their suspicious nature. The fires were separated by a few hundred feet, and officials say there may have been a witness who saw someone toss something out of a car.

Ashford Police Chief Jim Stanley says witnesses usually help in cases like this.

"They do call from time to time about people throwing cigarette butts out of the cars," says Stanley. "Of course with as dry as it is with these 100 degrees temperatures we have been having the last week or so a cigarette butt could very well set off a large fire."

Nobody has been interviewed as a witness and police say they do not have any information on who started the fire.