IVFD sends firefighters, trucks to Kansas’ Cherry Creek fire

    Cheyenne County, Kansas Emergency Management (CCEM) reports a major fire that spread over approximately 19 lane miles of highway Saturday morning was contained later that day.
    The flames were sparked along U.S. Highway 36 near the city of St. Francis, leading to some voluntary evacuations.  On Sunday, the governor issued a verbal disaster declaration for what they’re calling the Cherry Creek Fire.
    Kansas Governor Laura Kelly issued the disaster declaration after several agencies responded, including the Imperial Volunteer Fire Department (IVFD).
    Fire Chief Doug Mitchell said the IVFD initially took six  trucks and 14 firefighters, but three of the local trucks returned to Imperial. Three trucks with seven firefighters continued on to Kansas.
    Kelsey Weiss, IVFD 2nd asst. chief, said the Kansas fire was originally paged as a Chase County fire and is why six trucks initially went on the call. As they traveled further south, the location was updated and they also heard Benkelman firefighters communicating about the fire’s location in Kansas.
    That’s when three of Imperial’s trucks were sent back so as not to leave the local area without fire protection, Weiss said.
    IVFD’s time was spent on one of the fires about six miles south of Haigler, Weiss said.
    The IVFD crew logged 58 hours on the mutual aid call, Mitchell said.
    The fire left a burn scar between St. Francis and Wheeler in Cheyenne County that was four miles long and two miles wide. It was unclear how many acres burned, but Weiss said he heard it burned 15,000.
    According to KAKE News in Kansas, the Kansas National Guard sent in two Black Hawk helicopters and the Kansas Forest Service sent in an air tanker plane to help fight the flames from the air.
    CCEM reported no occupied homes were damaged, but a voluntary evacuation notice was given to area residents. Some vacant structures were damaged in the fire.
    The cause of the fire is under investigation, but may have started by a semi driving along Highway 36 that had a mechanical issue, according to Cheyenne County’s Emergency Manager.
Weiss called to CA fire
    Weiss spent a couple days in late October as part of the Lite Em Up professional crew that was called in to help fight the Kincade fire in California.
    His two days of work involved prepping homes for fire protection in the Sacramento area and then rehabbing them the next day after the fire threat passed.
    The Kincade fire burned 77,758 acres and was 100% contained by Oct. 31.