Firefighters busy in Kansas Monday and Tuesday dealing with grass fires and monitoring burned areas for hot spots. A field fire in Butler County forced evacuations before it was brought under control. It started about 1 p.m. Tuesday, Douglass Fire Chief Aaron Guyot told KSN News it started in a field where a farmer was harvesting soybeans. The farmer said his combine header hit a rock, sparking the fire.
Several miles of I-70 were closed in Ellsworth County for over an hour. Winds were high enough that the wildfire jumped the highway before it could be contained.
Fires in Sumner County burned in two locations. One was just south of the Sedgwick/Sumner county line on Hydraulic, the other started around 5 p.m. six miles south of Belle Plane and burned 300 to 500 acres. Officials say it was sparked by a downed power line. That fire was reported to be under control around 9 p.m.
Sedgwick County crews dealt with a fire along K-96 near 215th Street West. Wichita Fire Marshal Brad Crisp tells KSN News the fires began around 4 p.m. and were under control at about 5:15 p.m. Marshal Crisp says a mechanical issue with a vehicle or trailer likely sparked the fire.
The Kansas Division of Emergency Management, Kansas Fire Marshal, and Kansas Forest Service are urging Kansans to use caution because of the risk of wildland fires. They say the unseasonably warm temperatures, very dry south wind, low relative humidity, and extremely dry vegetation raise the fire danger across the state for the rest of the week.