Grass fires burn out of control

Douglas County crackled with out-of-control grass fires Sunday caused by dry conditions and people eager to burn their fields.

One fire, just east of Highway 40 and East 200 Road, scorched 25 to 30 acres of grassland.

Dense black smoke fills the air as flames ravage an empty shed, scorch nearby trees and blacken several acres of grass near East 50 Road and Highway 40 in northwest Douglas County. The fire was a result of a controlled burn that raced out of control about 4 p.m. Sunday. Topeka-Tecumseh and Kanwaka township firefighters who were leaving the scene of an earlier grass fire nearby saw the smoke and responded, preventing the spread to Gary Unfred's implements, house and other buildings, which lay only a few hundred feet away.

Another, in the 2100 section of East 300 Road, burned 5 to 6 acres.

And a controlled burn in the 1800 block of E. 50 Road caught a dilapidated shed, burning it to the ground.

“We need to pound it in people’s heads until we get some rain, lay off those fires,” said LeRoy Boucher, chief of the Lecompton Fire Department. “We need some rain, and it’s dry.”

The large grass fire near Highway 40 and East 200 Road started as a 5-acre controlled burn, Boucher said. The burn jumped the fire breaks and spread to a nearby field.

“We finally got it knocked down,” Boucher said. “It was headed to some houses.”

Boucher said seven or eight fire trucks from Lecompton, Kanwaka Township Fire Department and Topeka-Tecumseh Fire District responded to the fires.

Ed Pranker, chief of the Topeka-Tecumseh Fire District, said about 90 people had burn permits Sunday in his district.

“There’s a lot of people right now burning grass and brush piles, especially with the winds being down,” he said.

Pranker said to be prepared for a controlled burn.

“I would say have plenty of help and some access to water,” he said, “and a cell phone in case it does get out of their control.”

Gary Unfred, of Big Springs, lost an old shed when the wind shifted on a controlled burn and caught what he called “a pile of wood that was a barn at one time.”

“It was a controlled burn, but when the wind shifted it just caught,” he said.