Photo courtesy of Brook Fleenor Boeckman–taken at about 5 a.m. Tuesday morning from five miles away–for scale, she says the small dots are the fire trucks and other vehicles
Sac City Volunteer Fire Department Chief, Dale Duncan, estimates roughly 120 acres of private and Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) wetland burned in a fire that started early Tuesday morning.
Duncan says when they arrived, it had burned about 35 acres, but the wind played a role in spreading the blaze. Firefighters from Sac City, Lytton and Early as well as members of the DNR were on the scene for a little over six hours to put the fire out. No buildings were burned, but Duncan says there was plenty of fuel from dried grasses and trees. A Red Flag Warning was issued Monday and there was a high fire risk notification Tuesday as well; conditions that Duncan says create higher risks for these types of fires. At one point, the fire even attempted to cross the roadway and made it over two other points that would typically stop it–the first being a DNR access road on the south side that the fire jumped.
Duncan adds that once the fire was out, they helped the DNR backburn to eliminate any fuel for flare ups. Duncan says they are grateful for the aid from the other fire departments as well as a couple of agencies who provided help at the scene.
Video was submitted by Stacy Bellcock of Sac City:
