Grassfire scorches Oberlin-area farms

A scorched trailer remains parked in a burned-out field. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette)

TRAER, Kansas -- He stood on the powder-dry county road, looking west through bloodshot eyes at smoke and dust blowing over charred topsoil, drifting ashes and smoldering trees and yucca plants.

"Damn ... ," he said softly. " ... it looks like a war zone."

The Kansas farmer, who asked that his name not be used -- he feels his loss is no greater than anyone else's -- was shocked by the destruction caused by a wind-driven firestorm that swept through and around farmyards and cornfields, pastures and wheat fields in north-central Decatur County Tuesday afternoon and evening.

A broken-down car apparently started a fire near Oberlin on Tuesday. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette)

Firefighters fought not only the quickly-spreading flames but the temperature that reached an all-time record high of 115 degrees. Firefighters were back on the scene today dealing with rekindled flames.

There are reports of several firefighters treated for heat exhaustion and dehydration, and three admitted to the Oberlin hospital.

One firefighter was treated for severe burns to the palms of his hands after he grabbed the hot railing on his grass rig fire truck as he and a fellow firefighter made a mad dash away from flames that blasted through sunflowers and grass and over the top of their truck.

A Culbertson fire truck takes aim at a grassfire Tuesday. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette)

In the fire's path were farmsteads whose outbuildings and windbreaks took the brunt of the fire's destruction. There were no reports of occupied homes burned.

The fire started on Highway 36 about six-seven miles west of Oberlin, Kansas, and hot, dry south winds drove it north and northeast over about 7,000 acres. Three separate fires were reported, including one kindled by a downed power line.

Another Kansas farmer -- another quiet, unassuming man who asked that his name not be used -- said he saw the beginnings of the fire, with a car that is believed to have overheated. "I came upon it when the fire started, right by the radio station on 36," he said. "The fire just rolled out from under the car, and it was gone in minutes. The guy wanted to go back to his car, but then "Bam!" a tire blew."

A water truck heads toward the fire Tuesday. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette)

"The guy felt terrible. He called it in right away," the farmer said.

The farmer described the crunchy-dry grasses and weeds in the ditch: "It was like throwing gas on them. It moved a long way with that wind. It just went through everything .... All I had was a small shovel in the pickup ... "

"It's ugly ... ugly as can be," he said later, standing at that time about six to seven miles further north, helping to direct traffic at an intersection on the northwest edge of the fire and watching great billows of gray and black smoke fill the sky and dust devils generated by the fire's heat dance across charred wheat stubble and buffalo grass.

Firefighter Mike Sauvage applies water where he hopes it will do the most good. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette)

"What helps are the cornfields," the farmer said. "They slow up the fire, even with the stubble in it."

He noticed, too, that lots of neighbors were offering themselves and their tractors to plow firebreaks ahead of the fire. "There are a whole lot of people helping with water, too," he said.

The fire burned to within about 2-21⁄2 miles of Traer, Kansas on the southeast. It did not reach Cedar Bluffs or the Kansas-Nebraska border.

A burned out shed northwest of Oberlin. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette)

Decatur county commissioners banned sale and use of all fireworks in the county.

Yuccas are burned to the roots in Tuesday's fire. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette)