Natchez &8212; A late-afternoon brush fire in a gulley behind the old water plant on Brenham Avenue threatened nearby houses before firefighters got the blaze under control.

Harry Sumpter was just arriving home from work when his nephew told him a neighborhood youth had lit a firecracker and shot it into the gulley directly behind his trailer.

&8220;I went and looked and there was a little spot of fire, I ran and got my hose and when I got back, it was big,&8221; he said.

Kudzu, dead wood and debris in the gulley fuelled the rapidly spreading fire. Northerly winds pushed the fire into the backyards of nearby Oak Street homes.

An engine truck and a ladder truck were the first on the scene.

Sumpter himself was still working with his hose to fight the fire when police officers on the scene ordered him to move for his own safety.

Firefighters contained the west side of the fire, which stopped just yards from a shed and nearby house.

Alderman James &8220;Rickey&8221; Gray, chairman of the Board of Aldermen&8217;s Fire Committee, was on the scene and said afterwards that playing with fireworks &8212; especially within city limits &8212; was very dangerous.

&8220;They can land anywhere, and this one landed in the wrong place,&8221; he said. &8220;Anybody under age shooting firecrackers needs to be supervised.&8221;

Oak Street residents argued about the identity of the alleged instigator of the fire, but Sumpter and his wife, Yolanda &8212; who was in the trailer with two children when the fire started &8212; didn&8217;t join in. &8220;I&8217;m just glad my house and my kids are all right,&8221; she said.