Lightning blamed for wildfires

By Jeff Rice

Sterling Journal-Advocate

Flames leap from a prairie fire north of U.S. 6 between Sterling and Fleming Wednesday evening. The red glow at right is a fire truck moving up to attack the flames. (Jeff Rice / Sterling Journal-Advocate)

The southernmost of two prairie fires as seen from U.S. 6 looking north at about Mile Marker 416. The fire burned about two miles from east to west. (Jeff Rice / Sterling Journal-Advocate)

Firefighting equipment from all five Logan County fire departments scrambled to put down prairie fires between Sterling and Fleming Wednesday evening.

SCAT units, squad trucks and tenders from Sterling, Fleming, Crook, Peetz and Merino all responded when lightning strikes ignited a series of fires north of U.S. 6 near the Galien community. The multiple strikes quickly formed into two separate fires, dubbed the North Fire and South Fire. The North Fire was north and west of the intersection of County Roads 67 and 38 while the South Fire burned east of the intersection of County Roads 61 and 36.

Fleming Fire Chief Ken McCrone said shifting winds made it difficult to anticipate the fires direction.

"At one point the wind on the North Fire was blowing toward the south but at the same time the wind at the South Fire was blowing east," McCrone said. "Then winds at both places shifted, then died down completely, then started up again."

Firefighters also were hampered by a lack of usable roads. The fires were in a largely inaccessible area of Logan County, an expanse of sand hills roughly 20 miles long and five miles wide between I-76 and the southeastern shoulders of the valley. That area is served by only two or three gravel roads. That meant firefighters had to drive as much as two miles back and forth between the front lines and the tenders, which were confined to established roads.

No buildings or livestock were lost although at one point structures were thought to be threatened on the McDaniel ranch south of the North Fire. Winds shifted, however, blowing the fire back over already-scorched ground, allowing trucks to get in to effectively attack the fire.

The fires were first reported shortly before 7 p.m. and McCrone said the last units cleared the scene sometime after 9:30 p.m.

He said he doesn't yet have an estimate on how much acreage was burned but estimates the South Fire ran about two miles from east to west.

Let's block ads! (Why?)