County fire crews respond to multiple wheat blazes

Lind Assistant Fire Chief Mike Doyle summed up the week best when he said, “mutual aid is a good thing.”

Local fire departments had another busy week of putting out blazes. On the morning of July 26, the Lind and Ritzville fire departments responded to a wheat fire on property north of Lafayette Road.

Lind Fire Chief Kevin Starring said the department received the call at around 9:30 a.m. The Ritzville Fire Department received the mutual aid call minutes later.

Both departments had four trucks and three water tankers respond, and close to 20 firefighters at the scene.

Starring said the blaze burned about 50-60 acres on the east end of the farm before it stopped. He believed a combine started the blaze. Several antique vehicles were burned in the fire, but no injuries were reported.

Ritzville left the scene at around 10:30 a.m. while Lind finished with clean up and returned to the station around 11 a.m.

The Lind Fire Department also issued a special thank you to Gavin and Erin Morse, of GEM Air Inc., who dumped water from their plane to help douse the flames.

The Ritzville Fire Department received a call for a standing wheat fire on Bauer Road at approximately 1:34 p.m. Ritzville sent out seven vehicles with 14 firefighters.

The Harder/McCall crew sent out a truck and a tanker to assist at the scene.

The Lind Fire Department provided mutual aid at the fire, as did Brian Doyle, who ran a tractor with a disc plow around the field. Crews remained at the scene for up to four hours.

The blaze burned about 100 acres of standing wheat. County Fire Chief Scott Kembel said the source of the fire started from a combine.

“There was a lot of help out there,” said Kembel. “We want to thank anyone who was out there helping.”

Kembel also gave a special “thanks” to the Ritzville dispatch for their work in alerting the fire departments in a quick manner.

Two days later, the Ritzville crews responded to a wheat fire near Seivers and Rehn roads. The department received the call at about 4:30 p.m. and sent out eight vehicles.

Two tankers from Harder’s crew and one from The McGregor Company, along with several local farmers with disc plows assisted at the scene.

An Adams County Sheriff’s Office deputy and a Washington State Patrol unit helped the fire departments with traffic control.

Kembel said crews spent 2-3 hours at the scene and the fire burned about 100 acres.

Like the previous fires, the cause of the blaze stemmed from a combine. Kembel again expressed his gratitude for the help from local agencies and farmers.

On July 30, the Ritzville Fire Department responded to a small fire at the Interstate 90-Highway 395 interchange at 10:09 p.m.

The department sent five vehicles to the scene. Kembel said the fire burned half an acre and the cause of the blaze is unknown.