Reported grass fires are out after blustery conditions developed across the KVOE listening area Sunday morning.
Emporia Fire responded to a small grass fire at Interstate 35 mile marker 127 shortly before 7:45 am after reports of a power line generating sparks in the area. Battalion Chief Ryan Conley says the line caused a small fire that burned about 30 square feet. The fire was out when crews arrived.
Emporia, Lyon County District 4 and Americus were all toned out to a reported grass fire near Roads 200 and F-5 shortly after 8 am. Conley says there was a smoldering log pile but no actual fire at that location, which was near an area that saw about 50 acres burned as the result of power line sparks Dec. 20.
Meanwhile, Evergy continues work to restore power after outages in and around Emporia on Sunday morning. The first reported outage involved a zone from west Emporia to Piqua. Over 900 customers were reported as offline as of 7:45 am, but the number grew to over 2,600 a few minutes later. The vast majority of the outages, over 1,700, were in west Emporia. That number went down to just over 900 around 8:15 am and then went under 10 by 9 am. 4 Rivers Electric Cooperative has not reported any outages Sunday morning.
Wind gusts have approached 40 mph since 8 am. Winds could gust as high as 50 mph through sunset before dying back slightly to 30-40 mph overnight. Wind advisories cover all area counties Sunday.
KVOE and KVOE.com will have updates.
7:50-8:15 am Sunday
Emporia Fire and Evergy are busy Sunday morning as conditions become windy areawide.
Emporia Fire was dispatched to a grass fire at Interstate 35 mile marker 127 shortly before 7:45 am after reports of a power line generating sparks in the area. Shortly afterward, a line was reported downed in the area near the Flint Hills Technical College main campus near West 18th and Graphic Arts and the fire was reported as out.
Simultaneously, Evergy reported a power outage zone from west Emporia to Piqua. Over 900 customers were reported as offline as of 7:45 am, but the number grew to over 2,600 a few minutes later. The vast majority of the outages, over 1,700, were in west Emporia. That number has been trimmed, but still over 900 customers are offline in that same general area.
A second grass fire was reported between Emporia and Americus around 8 am. The grass fire was noted near Roads 200 and F-5, near an area that saw about 50 acres burned Dec. 20.
Details are pending. KVOE and KVOE.com will have updates.
