ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Less than 10 inches of precipitation has fallen in Seward County so far this year and with dry conditions expected to remain, the county was recently announced to be under a Drought Warning in a proclamation from Gov. Laura Kelly last week.
As Seward County Fire Chief Andrew Barkley tells it, the news was not entirely surprising.
“We’re updated on information like that pretty frequently, and it wasn’t too long ago when we heard about Gov. Kelly’s proclamation. It always starts out sounding really dismal, and everyone’s worried about what will happen, but then the rains eventually come and bump things up a little bit,” Barkley said. “Currently, the southern part of Seward County is in a D-1 (moderate) drought, and then north of U.S. Hwy 160 is in a D-2 (significant/severe) drought, so that’s how Seward County got included in all of that. We knew this would probably be coming because of the El Niño pattern and everything else that’s been going on with the weather. Every year, the state gets together to put together a wildfire outlook, and at that meeting is also when we talk about what to expect and what we think we’ll see. In Kansas, our wildfire season is typically February through April, with some outliers in May and June. We knew all of that would be delayed this year, and we feel like we’ll be seeing more of that more around July and/or August and closer to the fall. Everything’s fallen into what we met and discussed, so there’s not really too much that’s surprising about us being under that warning. I will say though, we’re in a way better position than the area of Hodgeman County, Pawnee County, Rush County and Ness County, they’re actually under a Drought Emergency warning.”
Barkley added there were a few other topics discussed at the state meeting.
“Kansas is starting to come up to par with our neighboring states like Colorado and Texas, which have really developed forestry programs and resources tied to all of that,” Barkley said. “We’re working on getting to that level, but we do have a meteorologist who works for the Kansas Forest Service who we meet with, and then all of us chiefs met at the beginning of the year to talk about the wildfire outlook. The predictions were all along the same wavelength since we’re coming out of the El Niño pattern, so again, we’ll probably see a delayed wildfire season. With all of that in mind, it’s kind of a blessing to have that season delayed because February and March around here are extremely windy, and March is historically when we’ve dealt with some bigger fires, and later in the year is when the winds are more manageable, so I think we’ll be in better shape later in the year.”
With the announcement, Barkley said he and his staff will be vigilant this summer.
“Since we’re in Southwest Kansas, the big factor around here is the wind. This news doesn’t really change our day-to-day operations, it just makes us more aware of areas drying out faster than normal and things like that,” Barkley said. “Something else we’ll be keeping an eye on is the humidity levels because that means there’s more moisture around, which means things won’t burn as fast. There’s a bit of a misconception that if there’s a lot of green, it won’t burn, but I will tell you that is absolutely not the case in my experience. So we won’t really change our day-to-day work, it just makes us more aware of some of the more meteorological aspects like moisture and wind and all of that. The days we’ll be extra cautious will be days with less than 20 percent humidity that also include wind gusts of 25 to 30 mph or higher. It’s rather interesting because with Seward County, people don’t really think of wildfires, they think it’s just a regular rural area, but we do get wildfires around here. This is a very flat area, and fires can take off on us VERY quickly compared to places with more hills and those features, but that also means we can catch up to things more quickly.”
With the county’s current dry conditions, Barkley offered some safety advice.
“We like to remind people every year around the wildfire season – and it’s no different if we’re in a drought – you want to be cognizant of the weather. A lot of Seward County residents have farmland and fields or have jobs that have them working outdoors a lot, so we encourage everyone to mow around their home and barns, about 100 yards or so, and have that grass short so it’ll give us a fighting chance to help your property if a situation arises,” Barkley said. “If you’ve got 3-feet tall grasses around your home or barn, that does not give us a fighting chance to help you in the case of a fire breaking out. We have some travel time when we’re responding to calls, so if you mow around your home and other outbuildings, that’ll greatly reduce the risk of fires and gives us the opportunity to slow things down and help save your property. If you’re doing hotwork outside, take a few simple precautions to make sure nothing gets out of hand. We’ve had some people who lived in town moving out to the country and they’ll be working on putting fencing up and welding something, and they don’t realize the conditions aren’t really optimal for doing such work. If you’ve got any hotwork you’ll be doing, like welding or cutting or grinding, get it done early in the morning or save it until the evening if you can, because the humidity will be up and the winds won’t be quite as strong. And there’s actually rather a ripple effect because if you get that kind of work done earlier, that means you won’t have to be in the heat and the sun, so it’s also a health and safety issue. So the big thing is, pay attention to the weather and adjust your chores/work accordingly so you stay safe and healthy. If possible, have someone with you who can help and also be an extra set of eyes to make sure nothing goes awry. I know it can feel a bit tedious to take those precautions, but it can save you a lot of time and trouble in the long run.”
Overall, Barkley said, he and staff will be ready to respond should any emergency arise.
“Like many other fire departments, staffing dictates how we operate day to day. We’re a smaller department, and we operate out of Liberal and Kismet, so we’ve got a bit of a head start if something comes up in the north and east parts of the county,” Barkley said. “We also push hydration and making sure everyone’s drinking enough water, and we try to keep everyone either inside or in shade as much as possible until we have to respond to a call, because we want to be at 100 percent function if we do end up getting called to a scene. Our fire job is very intense and when we get going, it feels like we’re going at 100 mph from start to finish, and with us being a smaller department, we don’t have as many people we can rotate in and out, so we’ve got to move pretty quickly as far as getting the situation contained and then getting people out and rehydrated and back to normal. We also have different protection for the summer and winter, and we also have different gear depending on if we’re responding to a house fire or grass fire, so we make adjustments. We really hope everyone pays attention and takes those extra precautions to maintain their safety, especially with the winds. It does not take too much at all for a fire to get out of control, so if people will just take some of those basic safety precautions, that will help them and us out significantly.”
