Significant grass fire activity from Friday in Lyon County is under investigation, and that investigative work may well take major steps forward in the next few days.
Emergency Management Director Jarrod Fell says more information will likely come to light once drones can get airborne. Emporia Fire and the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office will work together on the investigation.
That statement follows an exhaustive afternoon and evening of firefighting work Friday as extreme to catastrophic fire danger materialized in several locations, both in Lyon and surrounding counties. For Lyon County, the area that triggered the heaviest response started in the 1600 block of Road V around 4:30 pm and was finally contained near Roads 200 and X, or about five miles away, by 9 pm. Two people from that scene were taken to Newman Regional Health for possible smoke inhalation. At least one home and several outbuildings in the 1900 block of Road 175 were damaged. The fire and related smoke also forced a brief closure of Interstate 35 and US Highway 50 between Road U and the Coffey County line.
Emporia Fire also had to return to 949 Road 212 for a fire after a previous out-of-control burn destroyed a shed Tuesday. It is currently unclear whether that was due to a rekindle or other causes.
Significant fire activity was reported elsewhere as well.
*Fires in Coffey County triggered temporary closures of Interstate 35 from the Lyon to Osage county lines as well as Kansas Highway 58 near LeRoy.
*Greenwood County had five separate brush fires, including one near the Lyon County line and another east of Hamilton, along with two structure fires. Greenwood County Fire Chief Glen Collinge says a downed power line near Severy led to barn damage, but the building was saved by Eureka City Fire. A grass fire went into a shop building near Fall River, destroying the building and two vehicles.
*Wabaunsee County had two major fires of note, one that started near the Lyon County line north of Allen and another that threatened Lake Wabaunsee to the point where deputies issued an evacuation order. No injuries were reported with either incident and Lake Wabaunsee residents were allowed to return by late Friday evening. Damage reports are pending.
Fires areawide were largely driven by winds of anywhere from 50 to nearly 80 mph winds, but low humidity levels, ample amounts of dry grass and temperatures in the 70s were all contributing factors.
Separately, power is returning areawide after widespread outages Friday. At one point early Friday afternoon, there were close to 4,000 Evergy outages areawide — with over 3,000 outages in and immediately around Emporia. Less than 30 outages remain areawide, with less than 10 customers offline in Emporia.
There was also notable structural damage:
*Roof peeled off a store in Burlington
*Unspecified structural damage to a commercial building in Eureka
*Outbuilding roofs damaged near Hamilton
Saturday saw a pair of reported rekindles between 7-7:30 am, including one in the 1900 block of Road 170 outside the Lyon County Rural Water District 4 standpipe. There is currently no indication of damage to the standpipe. The other developed in the 1900 block of Road 175, apparently getting into some hay bales.
Lyon County residents with structural damage from Friday’s fire activity are asked to call the Lyon County Emergency Communications non-emergency phone number at 620-343-4225.
Stay with KVOE, KVOE.com and KVOE social media for updates.
