Prairie Fire Sends Five Departments South Of O'Neill

GSD AERIAL drops a load of water on a prairie fire south of O'Neill on Tuesday, June 10.

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CHAMBERS FIRE was called for mutual aide. This picture was taken as one of their trucks came on scene south of O'Neill. Photo courtesy

The O'Neill Fire Department responded to a grass fire south of Inman on Tuesday, June 10, around 3 p.m.

The department was called eight miles south and four east of O'Neill to a grass fire. O'Neill called in Chambers immediately and then asked for assistance from Ewing and then Atkinson and Bartlett as the fire continued to grow. With a lack of access by roads, the blaze became unmanageable.

"Once the Chambers crew showed up, we started to gain on stopping the blaze," said Assistant Fire Chief Alex Miles.

The blaze took around three hours to get controlled, with local ranchers and farmers bringing in two discs and a couple of air drops by GSD Aerial of O'Neill.

"Once the aerial drops happened and the blaze moved out onto the flat pasture land, it was easy to get it taken care of," said Miles.

The cause of the fire is suspected that air national guard jets chaff flares were dropped and started the fire, an aerial applicator attested to.

The ground fire was rough, sandhills terrain and three of the departments had vehicle troubles due to the rough terrain and high temperatures.

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