Early call a good call

Jill Fier/Register

It’s not something Midwesterners are used to seeing in early December – a grass fire that spread from a controlled burn on dry ground.



A day before the first substantial snowfall came to the Brookings area this season, an area property owner’s controlled burn in a waterway jumped a control line when the wind came up and switched directions.



Brookings Deputy Fire Chief Pete Bolzer said the property owner was proactive and called the Brookings Fire Department right away, sooner than many people would have, because he was worried about it spreading into an adjacent pasture.



Firefighters were able to bring the fire back under control, and the property owner was able to finish the controlled burn with their help. Volunteers were at the scene about 7 miles north of Brookings for an hour. No injuries or property damage were reported, and the fire burned less than a quarter-acre.