Chain break on combine causes two mile long fire in Perkins County

On Thursday afternoon, the Grant Volunteer Fire Department responded to a cornfield fire southeast of Grant near Perkins County Road 330 and Avenue 754.
The fire apparently started when a chain broke or fell off a corn header and it lit the dry corn, according to GVFD Chief Don Softley.  
Softly said a strong wind and the corn as fuel contributed to the fire spreading as fast as it did.  
The fire burned about 210 acres that was strung out just short of two miles long moving across four landowners’ properties.
The Grant VFD received mutual aid from ten additional volunteer fire departments, Brule, Ogallala, Paxton, Wallace, Madrid, Venango, Imperial, Wauneta, Elsie and Hayes Center, to go with the department’s three grass rigs, tanker, ambulance and command vehicle at the scene.  
The other departments were helpful with personnel, grass rigs and tankers.
The other departments could only send two types of equipment, and a lot of the units only had one person, Chief Softley said.
 There were no injuries at the scene, but one truck broke down during the incident.