Dry conditions fuel surge of grass fires throughout the county
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By Jeff Snyder
MOUNT AYR, Iowa — Recent dry and breezy conditions have contributed to nine grass fires over the last week in Ringgold County.
Mount Ayr’s Volunteer Fire Department has been stretched to the limit with the frequency of these fire events. While the majority have been grass or field fires, several structure fires have also been responded to as well.
Structure fires automatically trigger an all points bulletin due to the potential of life threatening conditions. These bulletins alert nearby fire departments simultaneously so time is not lost on response. Since all the fire departments are essentially volunteer, manpower response rates can vary. Factoring this contingency into the protocols for response enables the departments to coordinate their efforts without having to manually make contact with one another.
Grass fires can and do spread quickly and depend largely on ground conditions to determine their severity. Another issue surrounding these fires is their remoteness which hampers the responses as equipment largely rely on self-contained water sources rather than hydrant based water more common in urban settings.
Along with remoteness comes the challenging terrain that often accompanies these fires thereby further hampering the department’s abilities to cut off fast moving fires.
During extended dry conditions county managers often consider implementing open fire bans which helps to minimize these fire emergencies. Clark, Decatur, Union, Wayne and Warren counties have all implemented “burn bans.” Ringgold County has yet to make such a declaration as of this press time.
The most recent grass fire occurred on February 15 in rural Mount Ayr, where relatively mild breezes enabled the Mount Ayr Fire Department to gain control of the blaze in relatively short order. Even with a rapid response and ample manpower the blaze still consumed dozens of acres before being declared under control.
There were no structures involved in this incident, but on hand observations showed how easily a slight shift in the wind could have resulted in a more tragic outcome.
The county offices were closed as a result of Presidents Day, so no comment could be obtained by the supervisors regarding their stance on a burn ban and if one would be implemented as a result of all the fires in the past week. Generally counties act in concert with one another on matters such as burn bans as proximity becomes an issue regardless of ban continuity.
