Thursday, March 5, 2009
A huge grass fire in March 2006 was one of the worst grass fires in Reno County history. It burned thousands of acres and caused millions of dollars in damage.
"The conditions are the same way, no greening, no moisture. The stage is set like it was in '06 to have some serious fires," said Hutchinson Deputy Fire Chief Mike Patterson.
Patterson hopes to never go through that again, but he doesn't want to prevent farmers and other people who need to burn from getting it done.
So Reno County is turning to the National Weather Service web site where emergency dispatch and fire crews watch the "grassland" fire index every day. It's designed specifically for conditions in south central Kansas.
On Thursday, the map shows south central Kansas is in the extreme fire danger. Reno County is banning burning for just 24 hours, instead of week by week or month to month.
