HARTFORD, Wis. — Crews with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources are keeping busy as fire season has started in the state.
Cooperative Area Forest Ranger Marc Sass said in southeastern Wisconsin, local fire departments will handle any fire and will request the DNR if needed.
“With specialized equipment or with our extra knowledge in wildfires,” said Sass. “In other parts of the state, when someone calls 911, the DNR goes out right away with the fire departments as well.”
Sass said on Wednesday the DNR responded to 21 fires over 2,500 acres. One of them was a jack pine fire in Juneau County, which has affected more than 100 acres and resulted in residents being evacuated.
“Our fire weather changes daily and now that we’ve put a week or so of dry weather and you have very low humidity and wind, it doesn’t take long for our fuels to dry up,” said Sass. “Now that this weather is holding on with very high winds we’re in the thick of it for fire season here.”
It’s not hard to start a fire, so that’s why he recommends following your municipalities rules for burning.
“We strongly discourage anyone from doing any outdoor burning right now,” said Sass. “All it takes is one spark and once that spark hits the dry leaves that are out, or the grass fields, that fire can grow very, very quickly.”