Last week, Emporia firefighters started a controlled burn at Jones Park. They finished what they started Thursday.
Emporia Fire Training Officer Matt Luder says things went well. He also tells KVOE News prescribed fires like this can give different lessons to firefighters, based on their experience level.
Wind speeds were under 20 mph for the burn Thursday. The effort actually started March 5, with firefighters burning about three acres before halting due to wind gusts above 20 mph. The initial adjustment had them planning to finish the job March 6, but patch dense fog put the overall project on hold until Thursday.
Luder says there was an initial assessment done right after the burn was finished. He says the fire department plans to burn part of Jones Park every year as a training exercise and to rotate the burn among the department’s three shifts.
Meanwhile, the peak spring burn season is essentially underway now through April, and Lyon County Emergency Communications Director Roxanne Van Gundy is again urging Lyon County landowners to use the online burn reporting procedure available at lyoncounty911.org. Echoing comments made earlier this month on KVOE’s airwaves by Lyon County Emergency Management Director Jarrod Fell, Van Gundy says the online process has drastically decreased the call volume to dispatchers at a time of year when staff field a lot of calls per day. She also says it is easy to go online to report the start and end of burns. Van Gundy says the phone option — 620-343-4225 — is still available if needed, but landowners may be placed on hold as dispatchers handle other calls as needed.
Van Gundy also says landowners who need to call 911 if their burn goes out of control will get some follow-up questions from dispatchers, but those are designed to confirm information from the burn report and get updated information to responding fire departments and deputies.
Emporia residents wanting to burn need to call Fire Department headquarters at 620-343-4230.
