Crews battle grass fires near Eudora; K-10 closes temporarily

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Grass fires were frequent in Douglas County on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020. Crews battled this fire near the Winchester overpass just west of the Eudora City limits. Smoke from another fire can be seen in the background.

Area fire departments battled two grass fires near Eudora on Saturday afternoon, one of which threatened homes on the western edge of that city and required traffic on Kansas Highway 10 to be shut down temporarily.

Chief Mike Baxter of the Eudora Township Fire Department said one of the fires reported about 1 p.m. was at K-10 mile marker 17, near the Winchester Road overpass. The second fire was three miles to the west. Both fires started just north of the highway.

“I think they had a common source,” Baxter said. “It was probably sparks from a dragging chain or something like that. Conditions are such right now that a spark is all it takes to start a grass fire.”

The fires, which burnt about 190 acres of grassland, were “cold” by 5 p.m., but Baxter said the department would continue to monitor the burned fields for hot spots through the night.

Smoke from the fire near Winchester Road backed up traffic on K-10 and prompted the closure of the westbound lane for a short time.

The fire near Winchester Road also threatened a subdivision on the west edge of Eudora, Baxter said. That prompted a call for mutual aid from other Douglas County fire departments, as well as small all-terrain firefighting vehicles from Leavenworth and Johnson counties, he said.

Firefighters quelled that threat, and the only structural damage from the fire was to a small mobile structure that Baxter identified as either a hunting blind or a mobile shop. Onsite medics treated one firefighter suffering from heat exhaustion, Baxter said.

Baxter predicted there will be more grass fires in rural Douglas County until ditches, pastures and fields begin to green up this spring.

“We’re in prime grass fire season,” he said. “People need to use caution and don’t throw cigarettes out the car window.”

Rural residents should call Douglas County dispatchers at 785-832-5394 to alert authorities to any controlled burns they have planned, and they should mind any fires they start, Baxter said. Residents can call the same number to learn if there is a burn ban in place because of weather conditions.