KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Grass fires fanned by gusting winds scorched swaths of Kansas grassland Monday, forcing the evacuations of several towns and the closure of some roads, including a couple of short stretches of Interstate 70.
Authorities in south-central Kansas’ Clark County, which borders Oklahoma, cleared out the roughly six dozen residents of Englewood and the 870 residents of Ashland - the county seat - on Monday afternoon as grass fires that began in Oklahoma pressed closer. Englewood residents were instructed to head to Oklahoma, while Ashland residents were pressed to head east to Coldwater.
“The bottom line is we can’t stop the fire, so we’re just trying to save houses and people,” Millie Fudge, Clark County’s emergency services chief, told The Associated Press.
The Wichita Eagle reports that Protection, a 500-resident community in Comanche County, was evacuated Monday evening, and Wilson officials were also encouraging residents to leave that Ellsworth County town.
The Eagle said fires blazed in 21 counties over the course of Monday, with rural fire crews struggling to keep up.
Smoke forced the closure of a one-mile stretch of Interstate 70 in both directions in central Kansas’ Lincoln County, as well as a short section of that freeway in nearby Ellsworth County, the Kansas Highway Patrol said.
A stretch of a U.S. 54 in south-central Kansas also was closed Monday because of smoke linked to a fire near a cotton gin and surrounding grassland. Pratt County’s emergency services chief, Mark McManaman, says crews have managed to contain the blaze Monday to what he calls “a huge pile” of cotton burrs near the gin, which has escaped structural damage.
Two grass fires elsewhere charred about 6,000 acres in central Kansas but no injuries have been reported, authorities say.
Crews were using two Black Hawk helicopters Monday to dump water on the fires, which are 80 to 90 percent contained, said Katie Horner, a Kansas Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman. Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a state of disaster emergency to expedite state assistance after the fires began Saturday.
Kevin Darmofal, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said dry, shifting winds, with gusts of up to 60 mph will complicate the firefight in Reno, Rice and McPherson counties.
The largest of the fires burned about 4,800 acres in an area north of Hutchinson that includes a golf course, forcing about 300 people to be evacuated, deputy state emergency operations center manager Devan Tucking said. The evacuated residents later were allowed to return to their homes.
The smaller blaze burned in a rural area near Hutchinson. Two homes and two outbuildings have been damaged in the fires that were brought fully under control before rekindling. The extent of the damage wasn’t immediately known.
The Eagle reports more Hutchinson area residents were cautioned shortly after 7:30 p.m. Monday to be prepared to evacuate if the fires drew closer.
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