Fire Chief discusses potential for wild fires; more history tidbits

While watching the evening news recent headlines state “West Coast Ablaze” and “West Coast Sees No End to Wildfires.”

Clinton residents go about their business of getting supper ready, doing other household chores while waiting for the local news.

We don’t need to worry about wildland fire around here with miles and miles of corn, bean and crop fields, right? Wrong! When you see what is actually burning out west it brings the possibilities of a major fire closer to home.

Although on the news you see the towering pine trees burning, the majority of what is burning is grass and brush. Forty percent of the fires that Clinton Fire responds to are wildland fires, most of which are brush and grass.

Now is the time to get your property ready for our wildland seasons which are in the fall and spring. The Wisconsin DNR website has some great suggestions to help you get your property ready or as they say “Firewise.”

These are some of the chores that you will need to keep your property safe. Clean all combustible debris from your roof and gutters.

Trim and cut back shrubbery from around the house and any outbuildings. Keep a buffer mowed between buildings and overgrown grass or woods.

Don’t store your firewood right next to the house or outbuildings and keep the area around the wood pile clear of combustibles. Taking a little time to prepare will make a huge difference if a wildland fire breaks out on your land or near by.

Back to the idea that we will not have a fire of the size they are fighting out west. In the fall when all the crops are matured and before they are harvested they are all brown and dry. Those miles & miles of corn and beans have now become fuel for fire.

If we get the right conditions and wind, a fire could easily travel across our entire county in a short time.

Last spring a very large wildland fire occurred in southwestern Rock County which required multiple fire departments to extinguish. Luckily that fire was stopped before it was able to do more damage.

Many fire departments, including ours, were dispatched to protect residential homes while the fire burned through the brush and grass around them.

So what do we have for wildland equipment? Clinton Fire Protection District currently has a 2001 Ford F350 Brush Truck and a 2014 Kubota both with wildland skid units in them.

Firefighters each have a set of wildland gear that consists of a jacket, pants, helmet, goggles, boots, gloves and a “hot shield” mask.

The hot shield mask prevents soot and dust from getting into the firefighters lungs by uses a filter type mask. Wildland hand tools consist of shovels, brooms, Pulaski’s, leaf blower and the backpack pump (formerly called the Indian Runners named after the Smith Indian Fire Pump Company).

The backpack pump carries 5 gallons of water and is operated by a hand pump. You may wonder how a leaf blower is used to extinguish a wildland fire. It’s pretty simple, much like blowing out a candle the leaf blowers powerful blast of air blows the flames out but is used only with grass or cut grain fields.

The other question from last week was how we pay for this equipment. The Wisconsin DNR has a yearly grant program for fire departments with State land within their department’s response area.

Our response area includes State land along Turtle creek so we have an agreement with the State to provide fire protection there.

We have been applying for this grant for many years and all of the wildland equipment has been bought using the money from this grant. The grant is a 50/50 grant so the cost of this equipment is half of what we would have paid without it.

The wildland vehicles have been bought using only money from fundraisers, which shows the importance of our community in supporting our fundraisers.

What does it take to be a firefighter? Are you up to the challenge? Could you fill the firefighter’s boots? We’ll see when we talk about it next week.

Until next week, stay safe.

Chief Rindfleisch

This photo, taken in 1959, shows unidentified firefighters with a FWD Pumper Tanker.