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An enormous fire consumed a plot of land in Garwood, burning 20 acres and five round bales last Thursday evening, May 22.
The blaze came about as a result of a farmer burning down his laterals when the fire traveled along the road ditch on County Road 163 due to the wind direction change.
According to Garwood Volunteer Fire Department Fire Chief Todd Krenek, the fire jumped on the road and got into the same farmer’s hay patch, fortunately avoiding any structures or other surrounding properties.
The fire spread very quickly and was reported right away by the farmer, who called the Garwood VFD.
Sheridan VFD and Rock Island VFD were called in for assistance in battling the blaze, which burned in total around 20 acres and five round bales of hay.
“As soon as we got out there, we surrounded it and at that point, stopped it from spreading,” said Krenek. “We went in there afterwards and tore the hay bales apart and put the fire out.”
Krenek says despite how quickly the fire moved, there was no imminent threat of reaching a structure due to how spread out the Garwood prairie is.
“It had a long way to go before it ever reached a structure,” said Krenek. “That’s not always the case when you get closer to some of these towns or in cities. You don’t want anyone’s grass or hay or fences to burn up but it is a lot different than their structure burning down.”
The blaze additionally burned up surrounding fences, and in total took 6,000 gallons of water and 20 gallons of foam to extinguish. In total, eight firefighting units were dispatched out in the field to fight the fire.
Following their return to the fire station, fire fighters were quickly back on the move after an EMS call was received that same evening from Nada.
