Wind a factor as 80 cornstalk acres burn

    Wind last Thursday afternoon helped advance a fire in a northwest Chase County field that eventually burned 80 acres of a picked cornfield.
    Imperial Fire Chief Doug Mitchell said four departments were on scene with 15 trucks and tankers to battle the fire after the 1:50 p.m. report.
    A shredder/swather working ahead of a baler on a field to the north started the fire.
    “A bearing went out and got hot,” Mitchell said.
    Wind out of the north pushed the fire into the circle of cornstalks to the south.
    A field of green wheat south of that field, as well as a Briggs Farms tractor and disk, helped stop the fire, he said.
    “That sure helped a lot. It could’ve been a much worse situation,” Mitchell said.
    As Imperial Volunteer Fire Department trucks headed west after the call, heavy smoke was seen. Mitchell said they called in departments from Grant and Venango for mutual aid.
    The Lamar Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched with Imperial.
    The fire was in the Imperial district, Mitchell said, near the Road 746 and Ave. 320 intersection, about 16 miles northwest of Imperial.
    Owner of the field is the H. Bruce Stanton Trust, and is farmed by Richard Rice.
    The Holyoke, Colorado department was also summoned for mutual aid support, Mitchell noted, but weren’t needed once firefighters were on scene.