(Lake Park)– Firefighters had to deal with 40 mph plus wind along with high heat and extremely dry conditions in battling a field fire Saturday afternoon near Lake Park. Lake Park Fire Chief Brandon Ehret tells KUOO news they were called around 4:00 pm to a corn field that was on fire near 170th Avenue and 130th Street just northeast of Lake Park…
“Due to the nature of the high winds and the low humidity we immediately called for mutual aid from Spirit Lake. Arriving on the scene, we had a standing corn field that was burning. It actually was not moving as fast as we thought. Standing corn doesn’t burn as fast across the field as it does if it’s been combined, so we really lucked out there. Got out into it and it actually kind of almost burned itself out as it was going across the field. Put out a bunch of hot spots, we had a farmer come in with a disc and work the ground over to get everything buried. Spirit Lake was there also with tanker and quick attack units. Yeah, it was probably the best case scenario considering the day we were having and we had quite a few personnel show up so we were able to get it handled fairly quickly.”
Ehret says they aren’t sure how it got started…
“There was a field that had been combined just on the south side of that. We don’t know if the combine hit something and it was smoldering underneath or if it got into the fence line before it took off. The field that had been combined, there was nobody in that field at the time. It had been combined sometime before, so we don’t have any idea how it started. But like I said, we were able to contain it to that field that was standing it actually helped us out a great deal considering the wind we were having.”
Ehret urges everyone to use extreme caution as the very dry conditions continue and with the harvest progressing…
“If possible, you know, have a disc available or some kind of tillage equipment so if something gets going we can get it knocked down. We’ve got a pretty good network around here. We’ve got a lot of guys we can call, we’ve even got some guys on the department that have equipment around so that really helps. And yeah, I’m a farmer too and it’s tough to slow down when you’re going good but you know when we get those really windy days, if you don’t need to be out there, that’s fine. Obviously we can’t, you know, you gotta do what you gotta do but just be mindful, be careful. Maybe have some water around and just stay very vigilant, keep an eye on things.”
Ehret says it’s also important to have a fully charged fire extinguisher handy and to not hesitate to call 911 if you suspect something is wrong.
Ehret says the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene of Saturday’s fire by providing traffic control.
Firefighters were on the scene about an hour and-a-half.
