As the state’s Wildfire Awareness Week draws to a close Friday, the Kansas Forest Service is asking residents to do their part in reducing the risk of unplanned wildland fires.
Grass fires are commonplace across the Flint Hills from now through April, but Fire Prevention Specialist Shawna Hartman, the guest on KVOE’s Newsmaker 2 segment Thursday, says people may not realize just how prevalent grass fires across the state.
Hartman’s interview came a few hours before a small controlled burn apparently went out of control near Roads 250 and V around 1 pm. Reading Fire handled that incident.
The Kansas Forest Service says more than 90 percent of wildfires across the state are caused by humans.
Hartman says the Forest Service works closely with numerous partners — locally with fire departments and county emergency management agencies; nationally with the National Weather Service and US Forest Service; and statewide with the Division of Emergency Management, Office of State Fire Marshal, State Firefighters Association and Kansas Association of Fire Chiefs. Another statewide partnership, one involving the Department of Health and Environment, becomes more important soon as the annual Flint Hills Smoke Management Plan affects operations in April. The main focal points: training, outreach and education.
Hartman says the best way to avoid an unplanned grass fire is to “prepare before you drop the match.”
More information about the Kansas Forest Service is online at kansasforests.org. Click here for the Wildfire Awareness Week information link.
