By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — With the fires Monday came some of the same issues that have been in place in the past — homes that are built well off the beaten path. Hutchinson Fire Chief Steve Beer calls them indefensible structures.
“We have some homes that are built anywhere from 100 yards to a half mile in with a 10-foot-wide driveway that is surrounded by cedar trees going right up to the driveway,” Beer said. “They get their home nestled in and they have it landscaped real nice.”
Beer says when you have that type of situation, it can make for extremely difficult conditions for fire crews.
“As a fire comes through here at 50 miles per hour with the wind pushing it, the conditions that these men and women face, it’s nothing that I can even describe to you,” Beer said. “ A firestorm is the best way I can describe it coming at you. There’s heat, you can’t see with the smoke and everything.”
Beer says he will not subject his firefighters to that type of dangerous situation.
“Basically we would put our people into a suicide mission. We could put them up by the house but they wouldn’t survive up there. They only got a thousand gallons of water and, with the flames that were flying up 70 feet in the air yesterday, it’s a suicide mission and we will not put our people in places that people choose to build that’s not defendable.”
Beer says every resident that lives in the northern part of the county should have a fire mitigation plan in place and says they will work with homeowners to put one together. Despite the two fast-moving fires, fire crews were able to save all 126 homes involved on Monday, along with 26 outbuildings.