ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Seward County saw an average year for fires in 2024, according to Fire Chief Andrew Barkley.
“There wasn’t anything significant like we saw in other parts of the state with larger and bigger fires across Kansas,” he said.
Southwest Kansas is typically known as a relatively dry area in terms of precipitation, with drought often being the condition of the region. At this time, Barkley said, though, the area is likewise mostly average on moisture.
“It’s really weird when you look at Liberal,” he said. “Everything zigs and zags around it, but I think right now, going into ’25, we’re sitting like a normal year.”
The Seward County Rural Fire District had one purchase in 2024, that being self-contained breathing apparatuses purchased using a portion of the $4.16 million the county received from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. Barkley said former apparatuses were in very bad condition.
“Dec. 31 was the last day we could use what we had,” he said. “Most of our stuff was almost 20 years old.”
Barkley said the new apparatuses were bought in December, and they are on the department’s trucks, with all staff trained on their usage.
As for 2025, Barkley said there are no purchases planned for this year, but he did say plans for engines need to looked at for 2027.
Staffing for Rural Fire is a little short for 2025.
“In ’24, we had six daytime firefighters, seven paid call and two chiefs,” Barkley said. “Going into ’25, we have four daytime firefighters and two chiefs. We’re actively recruiting number five for daytime, but with the Revenue Neutral Rate, we lost number six.”
With an RNR budget passed by county commissioners last fall, Rural Fire will operate with the same budget it had in 2024, which Barkley said is just more than $1 million.
So what can be expected for fire activity in 2025? Barkley said as of now, that is anybody’s guess.
“I think it’s going to be a card game,” he said. “With the El Niña patterns, we’re on that line between the south and the north when it comes to how things are going to affect us and what’s going to happen. It could be a very busy year, it could be a very normal year, or it could be a very slow year.”
With 2024, Barkley said moisture levels were known, and it was also known that fire season would arrive a little later than usual.
“We got more active towards the fall than we did in our wildfire season in February, March and April,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a roll of the dice, and we’ll see what we get going into ’25, but the department’s ready to go in any direction we need to go.”
With the Rural Fire District’s main station on 18th Street in Liberal and another station in Kismet, Barkley said his department is in good shape at this time.
“We’re staffing as needed,” he said. “Anytime we have a red flag warning, our staffing pattern changes. We go no longer on eight-hour days. We go to 12-hour days. If we get a red flag on a Saturday, a Sunday or a holiday, we’re in here, and we’re staffed for 12 hours that day. We’re taking the proactive steps to be close to the trucks to get out the door faster. What’s helped us through the years is having a staff that is available onsite during the day.”
With daytime firefighters in place, Seward County relies less on volunteers than some departments, and Barkley said this is an advantage for a fire department such as his.
“If you’re an all volunteer department, you have that five to 10-minute delay of the guys leaving work to get here,” he said. “Then they get dressed. Then they get on the truck. Then you have 10 to 15 minutes of travel time. You really downsize your response altogether with having daytime firefighters, and it’s really helped with the trend we’re seeing across the U.S. with the decline in volunteers. That’s filled that void. The paid call staff we have with us now has been with us for five years, and they’re really good at what they do. They’re reliable and accountable.”
Despite recent moisture, much of the area’s grass remains dormant and dry, and the precipitation has provided growth to much of the grass, increasing the chances for fires. Barkley said hopes are calling for a good flat snow within the next month to help fight those chances.
“It’s going to take a good snow to do that,” he said.
Barkley said those living in Seward County do need to take precautions to help prevent local fires.
“I always encourage our residents in rural areas to make sure they’re maintaining a 100-feet perimeter around their houses and barns,” he said. “Make sure they’re mowed out, and there’s that real short grass or no grass at all within 100 feet. Give us a fighting chance with that – your shops, your barns, having that mowed back, your driveways, having that cleared back, making sure your driveways are big enough for our trucks to get in. There’s not a lot of trees here, but sometimes, trees can hamper that in some of the areas of the county.”
Barkley reminded residents they need to call for burn permits prior to burning, and they also need to be aware of possible weather conditions at the time of burning.
“We have a practice now with the controlled burn permits,” he said. “You may call me on Sunday, and it’s a five mile an hour wind, and it’s a great day to burn, but Monday, we’re getting a 50 mile an hour wind. We’re not burning on Sunday. We’re not taking that chance of having something rekindle and take off on us.”
Barkley also urged locals to have their valuables ready to go in case of an evacuation.
“I tell residents I’d get a red backpack,” he said. “Anything that’s valuable to you, put it in a safe. Put it in that backpack in the safe. If you get alerted that you have to leave because we’ve got a wildfire and a 50 mile an hour wind coming, you can grab that backpack, and you’ve got your important stuff. Our staff is going to do what they can to protect the property, but first and foremost is the life priority for us. If you get an evacuation during a wildfire, leave. If we have to come get you, we can’t fight fires.”
With ongoing fires in Southern California, Barkley has received many questions about comparing those conditions to Southwest Kansas, and he said there are many differences.
“LA’s very populated,” he said. “The houses are five feet apart, and there’s thousands of houses up into the hills. We don’t have that here. We’re flat ground. We can make stands, and we’re not always having to do the structure protection. We’re just putting fire out. Our department’s goal is 10 acres or less on any grass fire we have, and that’s what we try to do when we get those calls.”
Seward County last received a rating from the Insurance Services Organization in 2023, and the county currently sits at 55Y. Barkley said the first 5 is for the county’s protection class, and the second 5 is a rating from the City of Kismet, with the Y indicating the county.
“We’ve shown ISO we can haul water and meet their requirements,” he said. “We’re no longer an unprotected. We’re now where we can haul water. We made an improvement there. We get rated again in 2028, and we’re working hard to get that rating even lower. We’ve got some ideas and plans in place to get us there. We’ll see what they do when they come back out.”
