Hays Post
Crews were back in northeast Ellis County this morning dealing with hot spots and rekindled fires from a fire that burned 1,700 acres and destroyed a structure Thursday.
Fire crews were in the area of Buckye and Cathedral roads as of about 11 this morning.
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Ellis County Fire sent a press release about the fire Friday morning.
At about 11:31 a.m. Thursday, the Ellis County Fire Department was dispatched to the area of Codell Road and St. John St. Andrew for a grass fire. While responding and upon arrival, high wind speeds quickly started to spread the fire.
Also due to the location and terrain additional Ellis County Fire Department units were dispatched to assist with the fire.
Mutual Aid was then requested several fire departments in Russell, Rooks, Trego, Lincoln, and Osborne Counties as well as the Hays Fire Department.
The Ellis County Sheriff’s Office assisted in traffic control. Ellis County EMS also was requested for assistance to check on a firefighter who was feeling ill, and then stayed on standby throughout the evening. Ellis County Public Works provided several water trucks, a fuel truck, several graders, and a couple supervisors to assist.
The Ellis County Rehabilitation Unit also responded to provide firefighters with food and water, and to help monitor firefighters’ health while on breaks.
At about 3:30 p.m., the Ellis County Commission Chair, Nathan Leiker approved a local emergency disaster to assist with the emergency management procedures allowing state resources to be requested.
The Kansas Forestry Service was also requested for assistance, who then led the communications efforts for arial operations from two air tankers.
Both air tankers made 11 trips to drop water on the fire. The State Emergency Operations Center also dispatched the Mitchell County - North Central Kansas Wildfire Task Force.
Throughout the day, several local businesses and area farmers assisted the ECFD by bringing out loads of water to the water fill site, or used farm implements to help control the spread of the fire.
Thank you to Midland Marketing, Basgall Tank Service, Flatlander, Simpson Farm Enterprise, and others who assisted. Thanks also to Drieling Field Service for responding to the scene to service fire trucks and replace a tire on a fire engine. We apologize if we missed anyone.
A special thanks to Wendy’s and McDonalds for providing food to the firefighters. You would be surprised how well a couple warm McDouble’s goes over with the firefighters who have been working a fire all day.
Thank you as well to those community members who showed up on scene and dropped off water and snacks to our firefighters.
All the Ellis County Fire Department responded to assist to include 18 fire apparatus and 60 firefighters. The fire was reported under control at about 6:30 p.m.; however the fire was not out.
Fire crews stayed on scene until about midnight continuing to put out hot spots and complete some back burning to protect perimeters. Fire crews will be on site on Friday to continue to monitor the area and put out any hots spots that are needed.
The fire was reported to have started from the use of an UTV in the area. The preliminary estimate is the fire burnt approximately 1,750 acres, was 4.5 miles long, and about 1/3 mile wide. One vacant structure was lost, and there were no reported injuries.