WARRENSBURG — Dry conditions have contributed to several controlled burns in Johnson County getting out of control this week, leading to the Johnson County Fire Protection District and Johnson County Fire Protection District #2 responding to numerous grass fires across the county.
“With it being dry and windy … basically we just have to be prepared for the dryness of the grass,” JCFPD #2 Chief David Miller said.
Beginning Tuesday, March 2, JCFPD #2 responded to two grass fires near Kingsville and a third fire in the area of TT Highway and 2001st Road.
The Lone Jack Fire Department was called in for mutual aid for the second Kingsville fire.
JCFPD responded Tuesday to a rubbish fire turned grass fire in the 500 block of 1001st Road and a controlled burn turned grass fire in the 700 block of Northeast 700 Road.
JCFPD #2 responded to numerous grass fires Wednesday and Thursday, March 3 and 4.
JCFPD responded Wednesday morning to a brush pile turned grass fire in the 100 block of Northwest 1050 Road and a controlled burn that got out of control in the 500 block of Northwest 600 Road.
Both districts received reports of grass fires Wednesday evening and into Thursday.
Most reports consisted of multiple acres on fire.
“It was so cold for so long it got dryer, it froze dry,” Miller said. “The outcome is now is everything is like kindle and everything is just catching on fire. Dead trees and lots of dead grass underneath and all that seems to be burning so it takes a lot more time and water to get everything extinguished.”
Miller said a normal grass fire burns across the top of the area and goes out, but with current conditions, everything is catching fire.
“Even though we had the snow and the rain that we’ve had, closing out winter, when it froze so hard it also dried the grass out and now that the sun is coming out people are trying to do some cleanup,” JCFPD Chief Larry Jennings said. “We’ve had some wind and it blows pretty quickly out of control, gets into that grass that’s dry and it’ll spread pretty quick on ya when you don’t think it should because we’re still in the end of winter.”
Miller said crews also have to account for soft ground and access for remote fires.
Miller said controlled burns are common right now as the weather warms up.
“The weather became nice all at the same time … drives people outside to rake, clean up, burn brush piles, grass clippings, clean off the gardens. They were in the house for weeks and now on 60-degree days people are wanting to get out.”
Miller said people need to call dispatch if they plan to have a controlled burn, have a plan to control that fire and stay with it while it is burning.
Jennings said the individual cities in the county have some agency to enact a no burn order, but the fire districts and the state do not have anything in place to enact a no burn order.
“At best we can request that during the extremely dry or windy times, we can request that people who live in the districts refrain from burning, but there’s not a statewide burn ban authority,” Jennings said.
No injuries have been reported.
