Lyon County Emergency Management Director Jarrod Fell is using the high to very high fire danger this week and the prospect of a dry winter to remind residents about fire safety.
Fell is asking residents to take extra care with anything that could start a fire at this time.
This past weekend, Hartford-Neosho Rapids Fire Chief Greg Zumbrunn called grass a “one-hour fuel,” meaning it can go from saturated to cured in short order. Fell says last week’s rain, with some places getting an inch or more, is deceptive when it comes to the overall fire danger.
Rain may help to stave off drought for the short term, but it also poses challenges for fire departments who have to go into muddy fields to get fires out.
Fell’s interview also delved into burn policy. He says Lyon County continues driving people to its website, lyoncountyks.gov, to report burns — both starting and ending.
Lyon County Emergency Communications Director Roxanne Van Gundy says the department’s AI assistant Betty will be set up to handle burn report calls at a later date.
Rekindles are an ongoing concern, and Fell urged landowners to look at weather forecasts up to three days in advance before making burn plans.
Fell’s advice on Tuesday’s KVOE Morning Show follows two incidents that highlighted some of his concerns on the interview, one Sunday afternoon and another Monday afternoon. Sunday’s incident involved a small grass fire that developed in the 1600 block of X near Neosho Rapids after a fire got away from a brush pile. Several firefighting vehicles got stuck due to muddy conditions after the area got close to an inch of rain on Thursday. On Monday, fire developed in the 1500 block of AA20 Road near Neal. Greenwood County Fire Chief Glen Collinge says the grass fire worked into a shop building, destroying it and damaging several nearby vehicles. Collinge says the incident was a rekindle from recent burn barrel activity. No firefighting vehicles got stuck Monday. There were no injuries with either incident.
