(Everly)– The Milford and Lake Park fire departments spent a portion of their afternoon Wednesday battling a field fire in the southwest corner of Dickinson county.
Shane Langholz, Captain of the Milford Fire Department, says firefighters were called to 1703 240th Street around 2:30 p.m. He says smoke from the blaze could be seen as far away as Milford. As a result, he says they called for mutual aid assistance from the Lake Park Fire Department, even though the blaze was closer to the Everly and Fostoria fire districts, but those departments were already busy battling a blaze in Clay county.
Upon arriving, Langholz says firefighters found about 10 to 15 acres of corn stubble on fire. He says two farmers were disking up an area around the fire which had spread quickly until it got to a fenceline and some bean stubble on the other side, which slowed its progress. Firefighters were able to quickly bring the blaze under control. They remained on the scene about an hour and-a-half extinguishing hot spots.
Langholz says it’s believed the fire started during some stalk chopping.
Because of the lack of rain, the National Weather Service says the grassland fire danger for Dickinson county is high and even very high for some surrounding counties. As a result, Langholz says everyone needs to exercise extreme caution until some measurable rain falls.
The last measurable rainfall recorded at the KUOO studios happened back on September 25th when nearly an inch and-a-quarter fell.
Rain is back in the forecast for the upcoming weekend.
