|
North Central Kansas | Bad day for burning here today. Red Flag Warning with gusts over 30mph. Our district covers about 350 square miles in 3 counties in NC KS. Cloud, Clay and Ottawa. We have 5 stations and 12 trucks. Today we used them all.
We started the day off with a fire on the Clay/Cloud line. The fire was about 20 miles from my house so I got my 5 ton 6x6 fire truck out that is stationed at my house and headed that direction. I figured by the time I got half way there they would 10-22 me. As I headed north toward the fire I drove by some guys unloading some four wheelers out of a stock trailer and getting ready to burn a couple of miles north of me. I thought to myself I wonder if I should keep going or just wait for the fire to get away from them. I kept going as we had a working fire. I got almost to town and we were repaged for a second fire west of town. The first fire was about out so I headed west to that fire. CRP burn gone bad. Burned about 300 acres on that one. Just as we got it finished I could hear the Ottawa CO dispatcher page an all call for all available units to the location where I saw the guys getting ready to start the fire I passed on the way up in our district. We headed there with two trucks while the others refueld and filled up. Mutual aid is pretty neat when you need it. When we rolled up there was four fire districts already on scene. At least 14 fire trucks from two counties. While we are fighting it we can hear our trucks in Clay county responding to another fire. They had fought 2-3 after the initial one. I think at least one structure was lost. I heard the barn is engulfed but don't know what it was. We had three more fires after the one north of my house. I have been on about 20 years and this was the worst day I can remember. We had all of our trucks committed to fires and the calls just kept coming. I hope tommorrow is better but the wind is supposed to blow all night and tommorrow. I hope people keep their matches in their pocket tommorrow. | |
|
Red Flag Warning in Kansas.
