BEATRICE – The cause of most of the major wildfires that broke out over the weekend in Gage County were harvest-related. That’s according to Matt Langley, Chief of the Beatrice Rural Fire Department….one of multiple departments fighting the flames.


Langley said firefighters and equipment from multiple counties played a role in fighting the fires.
"Every department around and I know Sterling, Lancaster County, all of Gage County, some of Johnson County...we also had Jefferson County. Overall, the efforts were phenomenal, I thought. Everything went very smooth, we had good communications amongst ourselves. A big piece of this was the community effort, with tractors and discs to help get this under control. We also had some county and township road maintainers out, plowing dirt. That ultimately is what got these fires stopped. When we have wildfires like this with low relative humidity and the winds, we're just not gonna chase these down and put them out with a grass rig truck."


Langley said a break in the high winds later on Saturday helped firefighters get the main part of the fires out…with the rest of the weekend focusing on putting out hotspots or areas that rekindled.
"We sat all night through Saturday night. We did most of Sunday, and then we had another fire pop up on Sunday over there at Rockford. That one got extinguished relatively quickly for the same reasons....the efforts of the maintainers and the discs turning out at a rapid pace."

Tractor and Disc, rushing to Rockford Fire
Tractor and Disc, rushing to Rockford Fire  

Having enough water to fight the flames, Langley says, wasn’t a problem…thanks to the efforts of the fire departments but also local businesses and farmers.  "We called in other resources....the Co-ops with water tenders...we had some farmers bring in water tenders that they use for their farms. I know Wymore Fertilizer set up a water tender. We had adequate water supply. Once I knew we had that going and all that coming, that wasn't as big a concern and there wasn't ever a time that we were short on water."


Langley confirmed that two structures were lost during the fire near Holmesville…a building along U.S. Highway 136 five miles east of Beatrice….and a small storage shed along South 51st Road….behind a house. Firefighters somehow kept any homes along that road from catching fire.  "If there was a miracle that happened, it was those two...there were three houses actually that should have absolutely gone up. And so, it turned out good."


This week’s weather is expected to remain dry without significant rainfall, although the forecast calls for much lighter winds through at least Thursday.