Multiple grass fires to be expected due to high winds, dry weather
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
There were several grass fires Saturday, and firefighters expect more grass fires due to high winds and dry weather in the coming week.
On Saturday afternoon, there was a grass fire in Hallsvile, Mo. in the 5100 block of Kemper Road. ABC 17 News was on scene and saw three fire trucks and around 15 firefighters putting out a fire that burned multiple acres of a field.
A firefighter on scene told ABC 17 News that crews responded to about four or five grass fires on Saturday and that crews were going to be on their way to another one. This grass fire was caused by a man burning grass along his fence line before the wind and the rest of the dry grass caused the fire to spread.
Boone County Assistant Fire Chief Gale Blomenkamp said these fires are not uncommon for this time of year.
"This is what we expected today," Blomenkamp said. "This is our natural cover fire season here in mid-Missouri. It's any time between February and kind of into April. So we would expect this today."
In an X post, formerly known as Twitter, the Boone County Fire Department asked citizens not to burn this weekend.
Blomenkamp said people are burning and causing a fire bigger than expected.
"So what we're seeing is people are having, you know, they're burning things or they're doing a small burn that turns into a larger burn than what they expected," Blomenkamp said. "Shifty winds is an issue. I don't think people quite understand how dry it really is out there."
There may be moisture in the ground, but that does not mean there is moisture in the plant. When a plant is dead or dormant, there is no uptake of water, making it very dry.
When burning grass during this natural cover fire season, make sure it is controlled.
"People just need to stay in control of it, burn very small pieces at a time, have a water source with them if they need to mow the grass very, very short around the area that they want to burn and then call early if you have a problem or if things get bigger than what you expect, call 911 early or just get out there and loads get taken care of," BLomenkamp said.
Blomenkamp wants to remind people that whenever you start a fire, you are responsible for it.
