Windy, dry conditions lead to brushfire battle in Woodboro Township

Gusty winds helped turn a firepit burn into a threat to three Woodboro Township structures last Sunday afternoon, March 29.

The Crescent volunteer fire department responded to the call, with the assistance of the Cassian volunteer fire department and Wisconsin DNR units, to fight a spreading brush fire on the hillside behind 7373 U.S. Highway 8.

“The homeowner was going to burn debris at her firepit down by the lake,” Crescent fire chief Kevin Mahner said. “She had started the fire, and then the winds picked up and threw the ash onto the hillside. From there, the wind took over with that dry tinder that we have now on top.

“There were three structures that were threatened, however, crews got there and were able to take care of the threat straight away … there was some damage to their steps going down to the lake, but other than that, there was no damage to the structures, the houses.”

Firefighters were on the scene for about two hours, extinguishing hotspots.

“We train hard for things like this, and we just had a wildland refresher, so we were ready for it,” Mahner noted. “Each year when spring approaches, the DNR puts on a wildland course for our new firefighters, and then in-house we do a refresher and we make sure we have all our preset lines connected, our hoses. They go from our bigger diameter down to a smaller diameter for fighting the wildland fires. We have that all set up on the trucks so when we actually get on scene, it's time-saving and we just grab it and go.”

Mahner reminds the public to take extra precautions when burning. 

“Make sure when you’re burning that you have adequate hand tools available and a water source,” he said. “Make sure you look at the burn restrictions for that day, because they do change rapidly. We're in a low fire danger right now, but you know, two days with good wind even, it can change to moderate. It spreads quickly even though it's at the low fire danger level because the top layer is dried out.”

Ardith Carlton may be reached at [email protected].