In Focus

I want to talk about grass fires.

My scanner has gone off constantly for something or another, primarily fire-related issues from Menahga to Osakis and beyond.

The vegetation is dry, and the wind will make a fire spread quickly. So far, from what I can tell, they haven’t grown to massive proportions. But if this continues, who knows what will happen?

Most of these fires have been considered unknown in origin. And most fires are of human origin. The most common thing I typically see is someone burning something that gets out of control or debris floating around, and landing somewhere else, which starts a fire. According to the DNR, this is the leading cause of wildfires, at 34 percent; just behind that is arson, at 25 percent, and campfires come in at five percent.

People put down those matches!

It sometimes can also be as simple as someone using their grill or burning garbage, and some hot ash escapes into the dry vegetation. It doesn’t take much with these dry conditions.

Some of the calls I heard were fires originating around ditches by the road. These locations lead me to believe it’s one of two factors: someone flicking a cigarette out the window or the car itself.

Equipment fires are listed at 12 percent of the cause of fires, smoking is two percent, and railroads make up three percent.

I have seen rail cars spark as they travel down the line or someone hauling a trailer with a chain dragging on the ground causes sparking. There are also those cars with parts that drag on the ground and when you hit a bump at high speeds or even pull over to the side of the road with a hot engine or exhaust it can possibly catch the grass on fire. It doesn’t take much.

Nature does play a part with the wind, and two percent of the time, lightning can cause a fire.

The DNR said 18 percent of these fires are still of unknown origin.

Could it be the sun reflecting off trash in the ditch...through a window pane or glass bottle...reflecting off a soda can? The possibilities are endless.

It comes down to please stop throwing trash out of your car window, stop flicking cigarettes out the car window, don’t park on dry vegetation, and please don’t let chains and car parts drag along the road. And it’s not a good idea to mow the dry grasses around your home and park a mower with hot blades near dry vegetation.

From Monday, March 11 to Monday, March 18, Todd County reported 16 grass fires, Wadena County had five. That is a lot! And if this keeps up, it is only a matter of time before something possibly devastating happens because of a grass fire caused by human ignorance.

The DNR has burning bans in place, and the drought monitor for our area is between moderate and severe.

I am far from a fire expert, but please take heed of your actions to prevent future fires and give our local firefighters and the DNR a break.