HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) - The Latest on efforts to contain Kansas wildfires (all times local):
5:50 p.m.
Smoke from grass fires is forcing closures of a couple of short stretches of Interstate 70 in central Kansas.
Authorities say a one-mile length of the freeway in central Kansas’ Lincoln County was shut down Monday afternoon in both directions, as well as a short section of I-70 in nearby Ellsworth County. The Kansas Highway Patrol says traffic was being rerouted.
A section of 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.
4:50 p.m.
Authorities in south-central Kansas’ Clark County have ordered residents of two tiny towns to clear out as a precaution against approaching grass fires.
The sheriff’s department in the county, which borders Oklahoma, says in a posting on its Facebook page urged the roughly six dozen residents of Englewood and the 870 residents of Ashland - the county seat - to clear out.
The posting instructs those in Englewood to head to Oklahoma, while Ashland residents were urged to go east to Coldwater.
Millie Fudge is the county’s emergency services manager. She says the fire began in Oklahoma, and “the bottom line is we can’t stop the fire. So we’re just trying to save houses and people.”
4:15 p.m.
A stretch of a U.S. highway in south-central Kansas is closed 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.
But he says that winds gusting to 40 miles per hour spread that fire to nearby grass, forcing the indefinite closure of U.S. 54. Traffic was being rerouted.
McManaman says fire crews are waiting for the flames in the cotton bales to burn out.
12:10 p.m.
Authorities say two grass fires have burned about 6,000 acres in central Kansas but no injuries and little damage has been reported.
State officials say crews were using two helicopters Monday to dump water on the fires, which are 80 to 90 percent contained. The National Weather Service says dry, shifting winds, with gusts of up to 60 mph will complicate the firefight in Reno, Rice and McPherson counties.
About 300 people are being allowed to return to their homes after an area north of Hutchinson that included a golf course was threatened by a fire that burned about 4,800 acres. The smaller blaze burned in a rural area near Hutchinson. Two homes and two outbuildings have been damaged.
Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a state of disaster emergency.
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