Home Destroyed in Kearney County Fire

KAKE) – One person was injured, a farm home was destroyed and an undetermined amount of acres were burned in a grass fire Monday in Kearny County.

Around 1 p.m. Monday, a fire started along Highway 25 at mile marker 86 near Lakin. At that time, the Kearny County Sheriff’s Office says there was a strong wind from the west. The fire spread quickly because of the dry vegetation and lack of recent rainfall.

Kearny County Emergency Services responded to the fire, and received assistance from Stanton County, Grant County and Garden City. Crews were battling wind gusts in excess of 30 miles per hour, as well as extremely rugged terrain, which made it difficult to contain the fire.

The Kansas Forestry Service was notified, and will be using electronic equipment to measure how many acres were charred.

In addition to acres of grass, a home was destroyed by the fire. One Kearny County resident, who was acting on their own trying to stop the fire, was injured, though their condition is unknown.

Kearny County emergency preparedness director Jared Webb has declared a verbal emergency with the state, emergency operations center and with the state emergency operations center, and had assistance from them at getting air support to drop water from aircraft. The declaration will be in effect until county commissioners rescind it.

As of Tuesday morning, the fire was contained, although there were a few hotspots that firefighters were continuing to monitor with continued high wind.