Grass fire risk high in Loess Hills; volunteer fire department on alert

Lewis Township Fire and Rescue is a mostly volunteer department in the Loess Hills south of Council Bluffs. The department gets called for grass and wildland fires when the weather is dry and windy.

• There's a burn ban in Pottawattamie County but a neighbor didn't know that when he burned yard waste on Friday. Firefighters put it out quickly, but it's not the only grass they've seen this week.
• This week they got a call from a farmer harvesting corn and beans. He was concerned about his combine sparking a fire. "For one of them to call us and say, 'Hey this thing is getting hot, can you just bring a truck down here and spray some water on it?’ That prevented probably a really big grass fire," said Chief Jake Hardiman.
• Hardiman says farmers are often good partners in these conditions; calling before a combine sparks a fire or creating fire breaks when one does break out.
  

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

High fire risk means a waiting game at the Lewis Township Volunteer Fire Department. I'm Southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter Katrina Markel.

I'm here because it’s this department that is often called when there's a grass fire or a wildlands fire in the Loess Hills.

There's a burn ban in Pottawattamie County, but a neighbor didn't know that when he burned yard waste on Friday.

A sheriff's deputy at the scene told me that's been happening quite a bit. People just don't know.

Using a truck meant for grassfires, it didn't take long to extinguish but on another dry, windy day, Chief Jake Hardiman was expecting something like this.

"Our alertness level goes up for sure," said Hardiman.

Captain Andy Diller says they get extra training for wildland fires: "We work with Pott County conservation up at Hitchcock Nature Center quite a bit where they do a large amount of burning."

This tanker carries 2,000 gallons of water. The department also has grass trucks.

They used them this week to put out a grass fire along I-29. Then, helped a local farmer cool down his combine.

"For one of them to call us and say, 'Hey this thing is getting hot, can you just bring a truck down here and spray some water on it?’ That prevented probably a really big grass fire," said the chief.

Hardiman says farmers are often good partners in these conditions; calling before a combine sparks a fire or creating fire breaks when one does break out.

He says some grass fires even happen because of a spark from semi-truck brakes. That's tough to prevent, so they appreciate help from watchful farmers and careful neighbors.