Utah high schools are preparing to return pay-to-play athletics fees to students. (STOCK PHOTO)
CLEARFIELD, Utah — A Clearfield High school baseball coach apparently lit his infield on fire to dry it out, and now it’s too dangerous to play on.
The Standard-Examiner reports that Clearfield High School’s baseball field is shut down for the foreseeable future. There’s caution tape around the infield dirt and the smell of gasoline in the air.
The coach reportedly dumped diesel fuel and gasoline onto the infield in order to try and use fire to dry out the dirt. Usually when groundskeepers do this, it’s for a certain spot, and they use a particular product or mix fuel with sawdust first. But this is multiple spots over a large surface area.
The Davis County Health Department is now overseeing the cleanup of the resulting environmental problem. It looks like the contaminated soil will have to be dug up, removed and replaced with uncontaminated soil.
In the meantime, the team is playing its home games elsewhere.