Road grader starts fire, burns more than 100 acres

Oct. 17--Tina Dauer was at her home on Sundgren Road in far southwestern Saline County on Friday afternoon when she saw a county road grader go by with its blade scraping the asphalt.

"I was thinking that was a good way to start a fire," she said about an hour later as her husband, Chris, brother-in-law Dave Dauer and firefighters with three rural fire departments fought a grass fire started by the grader.

The fire, which was reported about 2 p.m., burned about 120 acres of pasture before being extinguished about 3:30 p.m. In all, the grader started three fires, but the two others were put out quickly.

Dave Dauer, who lives a few hundred yards to the south, had 14 cattle on his pasture and said all of them were moved to another pasture after the fire started.

"It was just stupid, doing something like that," Dave Dauer said.

He said that if the wind had been from a different direction, he might have lost his house.

"That's why you keep it mowed really close around the house," he said. "There was no loss of life, no buildings, but I wouldn't mind somebody losing their job over this."

Totaling up the damage

Dauer said Gary Nash, director of the Saline County Road and Bridge Department, had been out to talk to him while the fire was still burning.

"He told me to total up the damage and tell them how much it was," Dauer said.

Nash said the grader was being used to scrape back grass from the edge of the asphalt before the edge was striped with white paint.

"They were using a blade to push the grass off into the shoulder," Nash said. "It was sparking as it went along. With the dryness, (sparks) started the grass on fire and it spread into a pasture."

Nash said the county has been using road graders to scrape grass for seven or eight years, but no one could remember it starting a fire before Friday.

Nash said details about the fire will be given to Saline County Administrator Rita Deister, who will give information about the incident to the county's insurance company.

"That method of removing grass from roads has now been removed from our rural operator's manual," Nash said.

-- Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by email at [email protected].

___

(c)2015 The Salina Journal (Salina, Kan.)

Visit The Salina Journal (Salina, Kan.) at www.saljournal.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.