CECIL, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Elevated fire danger continues to be a concern across Wisconsin. The DNR is asking the public to refrain from outdoor burning as it responded to more than 35 wildfires in just one day.
And it continued to see incidents throughout the weekend, including a major fire in Shawano County on Sunday.
“Hot, dry and windy – that’s always a recipe for disaster,” said DNR Forester Ranger Garrett Lubbers.
And as the DNR is seeing this weekend, those conditions, are cooking up an array of wildfires, statewide.
Saturday, across the state, 37 different fires burned hundreds of acres of land.
According to Lubber, “There was one up in the Northwest part of the state that was at least over a hundred acres that we know of. Around here there were a few fires. They were relatively small but just with the conditions, they start readily and they move really fast.”
And that’s exactly what happened in Cecil, in Shawano County, at about noon on Sunday.
“We had a fire started on the northside of the lake and with all the cattails surrounding this lake the wind pushed it to the northeast and got into the cattails and really took off with the wind,” said Dan Kowalczyk, the assistant chief with Cecil Washington Fire Department.
At least a half dozen fire departments, from the area, along with the DNR responded to a brush fire around White Clay Lake.
According to Kowalczyk, “In a heartbeat, it didn’t take but a couple of minutes to go probably several hundred yards when she went up. Flames, probably burning through there that were, you know, 25 feet tall. You couldn’t get ahead of it too far because you didn’t want to put people in danger.”
Crews spent the afternoon battling the blaze. The DNR bringing in a bulldozer to help too, as additional fire trucks, from surrounding communities, staged nearby — ready to help in an already tense situation.
“You can’t really get in there with big trucks, just UTVs and some pickup trucks that we’re able to shuttle water in with that have pumps on them. Manpower, lot of manpower just beating it, with tools, hand tools,” said Kowalczyk.
Officials aren’t sure what caused the White Clay Lake fire, and no structures were damaged, but in conditions like this, according to the DNR it doesn’t take much.
That’s why, when the DNR asks the public to refrain from outside burning, because of high fire danger, they expect people to heed the warnings.
Lubbers added, “Even if it is legal to burn, in the evenings when it’s better conditions, generally if it’s windy and it’s dry – yeah you can burn but it’s probably not a safe idea to do so just because the risk of it getting out of control is kind of high.”
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