My son Jeremy and I are members of Fire District No.3 which covers the western third of Saline County and the east-central part of Ellsworth county. My wife, Liz, is a medical “first responder” for district 3. The majority of our fire calls are grass fires with some car fires mainly on I-70. Occasionally we get a bale pile fire or structure fire. I will go with my wife on car wrecks when extractions are necessary and help with that. I will post accounts of some of our fire runs and how weather affects them.

January 2, pickup fire 29th rd. and ave F.

Grassland fire danger was in the moderate category when this call came in at around 8 am. Temps were around 18 degrees, wind was light out of the northwest. The fire scene was 5 miles south of my house. When I got on scene, I found the truck was off 29th rd. on a section line between two pastures. It was partially involved with fire with the grass around it also burning and spreading. The occupant was standing on 29th rd with a dog on a leash. I called on scene and took incident command. A neighbor drove up and suggested things looked funny and law enforcement needed to be summoned. I called in that a deputy needed to come to the scene. Sq. 340 with chief Mark and Shane arrived first. I detailed them to knock out the expanding grass fire first then work on the burning pickup. I had the truck owner and his dog get into my truck as they were very cold. At this time Sq. 330 and 350 arrived as well as Jeremy in his pickup. It took quite an effort from sq. 340 and 330 to knock out the fire in the truck due to the gas tank spilling gas on the ground. Law enforcement deputys arrived and talked to the truck owner. In the end, he refused a DUI breath test and also had warrents. After the guys cooled the truck down, I terminated the incident with dispatch and released the Squads. The fire started when the driver, who was impared, drove his truck down the right-a-way during the night. He dropped the front end of his truck off a 3 foot dropoff and was high centered. Due to the cold temps, he continued to run the truck motor to stay warm and the exhaust ignited the grass which spread through the truck.

January 21, grassfire, Shipton/Miller Rds.

Grassland fire danger was in the moderate category when the pager jolted me awake at 2 in the morning. When I called in to dispatch that I was responding, the temp gauge showed 12 degrees. Winds were light northwesterly. I heard Jeremy call in he was responding so he was ahead of me. At the first hill I drove over I could see a glow in the call scene area. As I neared the scene(6 miles from home)I began to think I needed to go to Brookville and get an extra truck. The fire appeared quite large, but at night fires look larger. Jeremy and Sq. 350 got on scene first so he ran one of their hoselines and went on the attack. Sq.340 arrived next, with two on board so I waited for Sq. 320 and climbed on board while Joe W. drove. We attacked the north portion of the west fire line. This area of the fire was covered with small trees interspaced with dead logs which made difficult maneuvering for Joe. By the time we finished up, the rest of the trucks were leaving the fire scene and my hands were feeling frozen. The fire burned 1/2 mile long and 200 yards wide. It started by the old burned out "haunted house", probably by people messing around and trying to stay warm.