N.D. Farmers Urged to Practice Fire Safety

By BLAKE NICHOLSON

BISMARCK, N.D. – When Bob Finken goes into his fields, he carries a fire extinguisher on his combine. He thinks more farmers should do the same.

As harvest begins over the drought-stricken Midwest, fire officials are urging farmers to carry fire extinguishers and take other precautions that could help cut down on grass fires.

“I don’t think enough do,” Finken, a rural Douglas producer, said Tuesday while harvesting peas. “It’s about 50-50.”

About one-third of the grass fires in North Dakota in July were started by farm equipment, and that percentage could rise this month and next when harvest is in full swing, said Geremy Olson, the fire planning and prevention specialist for the North Dakota Forest Service.

Finken said two grass fires this week near Max, in the central portion of the state, were started by producers baling hay on Conservation Reserve Program land. CRP land is normally kept idle, but the federal government opened it to haying in July because of drought in parts of the state.

State Fire Marshal Ray Lambert said many of the CRP acres being hayed are not in the areas where drought conditions are the worst, such as southwestern and south central North Dakota. Many of the fields in those regions are too dry to produce much hay or other crops.

With CRP haying and harvest in full swing, “certainly there’s going to be an increase (in fires),” Lambert said.

Finken said one way to cut down on the risk of a fire from baling is to bale earlier in the morning, when it is cooler and the ground is wet from dew.

North Dakota had about 800 grass fires last year, about 10 percent of which were caused by farm machinery, which is typical for the state, Lambert said. He said farmers are well aware of the fire dangers during harvest, particularly when conditions are as dry as they are this year. Farmers also have been helping firefighters keep grass fires under control, away from livestock and farm buildings.

“I think they’re responding and reacting on their day to day chores with the weather and the fire danger conditions almost first in their mind,” Lambert said. “But we do ask when they take to the fields that they have water available close at hand.”

Finken and Olson both said that farmers also should keep their equipment cleaned and well-maintained. Sometimes, Olson said, even that is not enough.

“This year is pretty volatile,” he said. “A lot of (fires) are combines literally hitting rocks and sparks are starting the fire. It’s a tough year for farmers.”