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Pierre, Fort Pierre crews battle three rural grass fires By
LETA NOLAN CHILDERS
Rural firefighters were kept busy Thursday. At about 4 p.m., the Pierre Rural Fire Department was called to an area just north of the Oahe Dam to fight a grass fire fed by winds that kept switching directions. However, before they could even get there, the firemen discovered a second blaze that ignited near the intersection of Grey Goose Road and S.D. Highway 1804. “We stopped and took a look at it,” said Assistant Pierre Rural Fire Chief Jason Roggow. “We knew it would take all of our resources so we asked that the Fort Pierre Fire Department be dispatched to take care of the Whispering Pines fire and we kept the Pierre men working on the Grey Goose fire.” Nearly 20 acres of grassland near Whispering Pines was lost to the fire. At times the smoke was so dense that deputies from the Hughes County Sheriff’s Office stopped traffic, allowing only one direction of traffic to cross the fire area at a time and only when the smoke was light enough to allow some visibility. Roggow said that the Grey Goose fire was much smaller, but still destroyed one to two acres of grassland. “We got all that wonderful rain this spring,” said Roggow, “and it really helped grow a lot of thick foliage. Unfortunately, since we haven’t gotten much rain since, it’s dried out. There’s a lot of fuel out there that can start burning pretty easily.” Serious injury was averted by one Pierre firefighter. A four-wheel all-terrain vehicle with a rear water tank was in use in the Whispering Pines fire. When it attempted to go up one slope, the ATV turned over. Fortunately the fireman managed to throw himself to the side away from the ATV. “He’s had a lot of experience on ATV’s,” said Roggow. The fireman’s identity was not revealed. Roggow said that he and other firemen looked for the source or cause of the Grey Goose and Whispering Pines fires, but were unable to detect the exact cause. It proved to be a long day for the Fort Pierre firemen. Soon after they returned to their station they were dispatched to another fire north of Fort Pierre on S.D. Highway 1806. According to Fort Pierre Fire Chief Carl Rathbun, a pickup was pulling a trailer loaded with cattle. A wheel bearing went out and the driver pulled over to the ditch. The heat and sparks from the wheel bearing started the fire. “It was a small fire,” said Rathbun. “It just took driving 30 miles to get to it.”
For more information about the Pierre Fire |
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