Dryness, wind heat up week of fire calls

    Grass fires, power lines down, gas meter damage and a missing jet skier kept the Imperial Volunteer Fire Department running last week.
    The area saw an inch of rain, but it’s still dry and that contributed to several of the six calls the IVFD answered over a five-day period.
    A missing jet skier at Enders Lake Saturday drew a big response, said Fire Chief Doug Mitchell. Besides the IVFD, EMS, a sheriff’s deputy and a Game & Parks officer were on scene.
    The report came in at 5:20 p.m. when friends reported a man missing who had been jet skiing. His jet ski was found grounded on the lake’s west end.
    He was eventually found and was safe. He’d run out of fuel and began walking, Mitchell said. He did not have a cell phone to report his whereabouts, he added. His name and age were unavailable.
    IVFD responded to four grass fires, three on June 16 when  temperatures hit 105 in Imperial, and one early Friday in Perkins County when Grant’s department called for mutual aid.
    On June 16, a 7:40 a.m. call took the IVFD east of town near the church camp, where two small ditch fires were burning, about a half mile apart, Mitchell said.
    “That had to be something hot off a vehicle. There were no electrical fences nearby,” Mitchell said.
    The same morning at 11:05 a.m., IVFD put out a larger ditch fire burning along old Highway 6. Mitchell said that could’ve been something hot off a vehicle or from an nearby electrical fence.
    Two broken poles and power lines down on Road 736 (the Vilas Smith Road) called the IVFD that night. First Asst. Chief Brad Wheeler said there was no fire when they arrived, but as a precaution, they waited on scene until Highline Electric arrived.
    The IVFD was among four area departments called in to assist in mutual aid at a grass fire in Perkins County Friday.
    Called at 1:30 a.m., eight firefighters took a quick-attack unit and two tankers to the scene. Caused by a possible lightning strike, the fire was hard to get to, Mitchell said. IVFD returned about 5 a.m., he said.
    A natural gas meter hit by a car called out the IVFD Sunday at 4:40 p.m. in the alley near 14th and Broadway. Mitchell said the vehicle clipped a regulator on the meter and gas was leaking.