It’s been active few days for firefighters
Firefighters from Imperial have had a busy few days since Sunday, responding three times, two of them on mutual aid calls.
Three Imperial Volunteer Fire Department members left in an IVFD unit at 4 a.m. Wednesday after a request for help from the Southwest Mutual Aid Strike Team.
They were called in to relieve firefighters at a major grass fire near the Wellfleet/Maywood area, said IVFD Fire Chief Doug Mitchell.
According to a U.S. Forest Service report Mitchell had, the fire started Tuesday and had burned 1,000 acres as of Wednesday morning in an area southeast of North Platte Feeders.
Imperial’s is one of 20 departments on scene, Mitchell said.
On Sunday, the IVFD and the Lamar Volunteer Fire Department responded to the far southern part of the fire district to Chundy Land & Cattle ground at 72634—320 Avenue, Mitchell said.
The fire consumed ground hay, square cornstalk bales, a pile of ground corn, as well as a farm tractor with an attached corn grinder and a semi-truck with a trailer.
Mitchell said they believe something got hot in the equipment being used that morning to feed cattle.
They finished feeding about 11:30 a.m., and the IVFD was called at 1:40 p.m. Firefighters returned to Imperial at 7 p.m.
Mitchell said it was a big help to be able to access water from the well on the property. Between 16,000 and 18,000 gallons of water were used.
Seven IVFD trucks and 15 firefighters responded. Lamar sent two trucks and four firefighters.
IVFD also responded to a mutual aid call in the Benkelman Fire District Tuesday afternoon about 2:20 p.m. to help at a grass fire near Parks.
Grass, some bales and fence posts were burned, all on private property in Dundy County, about two miles south of the fish hatchery.
Mitchell said Imperial sent three trucks and eight firefighters who returned about 8 p.m.
IVFD also helped load one of the planes flying out of the Imperial airport, which dropped retardant on the fire.
No other details were available Wednesday morning.