FAIRBURY, Neb. -  It's two years this week since areas like Rock Creek Station in southeast Nebraska were ablaze.

Wildfires burned over 2600 acres of Jefferson County and officials are looking back on those experiences, while monitoring forecasts this spring.

“It was very busy, there were a lot of things going on…. It allowed the local departments to realize what does go on in a large incident.”

John McKee has spent 25 years as the Jefferson/Saline County Emergency Manager and says the several area departments who battled the blazes gained valuable experience. But most important, they learned how to work together.

“We learned that we do work together good… Communication was good. There’s always complaints about communication, but we did overcome that,” McKee said. “Working with state folks and officials was really good.”

Those fires left a lasting impact, not just on the effected areas, but on officials like McKee as well. An example, this weekends forecast. Temperatures are forecasted to be in the 80’s with high winds.

“This weekend is a little bit of a concern,” McKee said. “We’re getting a little bit of green in there, but moisture we’ve had in some areas are starting to dry out… If we get winds and high temperatures, the green may help to slow it down a little bit, but it’s going to create a lot more smoke.”

But McKee says the public can do their part to help prevent fires. Avoid discarding cigarettes, don’t park vehicles in tall grass, and for those who may have conducted controlled burning, monitor your brush piles and burned areas for re-igniting.

“Hopefully you burned around it [piles] and there’s a nice green area, but those brush piles will spread hundreds of feet so even a small area around sometimes isn’t good enough.”