A RRW Sunday

Monday, January 30, 2017

Red Willow Western rural firefighters doused a grass fire and extinguished the blazes that consumed a chicken coop in two incidents Sunday. A fire blamed on a carelessly discarded cigarette blackened a corner of dry and crispy CRP grasses north on McCook's West Third at the intersection of county roads 719 and 385 at about 4:30 p.m. "It just goes to show ya how dry it is," said Fire Chief Bill Elliott, adding they were lucky the winds, previously gusting to about 20 miles an hour, had died down somewhat. The second fire, at about 9 p.m., destroyed a chicken coop and seared the siding on an adjacent pole barn on the Charlie Carter farmstead northeast of McCook. Carter's sons were able to let the chickens out of the chicken house and out of the pen as he and the boys fought the flames "as best we could," Carter said, before calling for Red Willow Western firefighters. The boys think the fire may have started with a heater in the chicken's water bucket. Carter said they feel lucky that the firefighters stopped the blaze before it burned nearby trees, trucks and trailers.

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