Hartford Fire & Rescue responded to the report of a large outdoor fire originally reported near 5840 Highway 60, on Monday, May 4 at 12:47 p.m. Hartford units were updated by dispatch that the fire’s location was closer to or behind 6000 Hwy 60 at the Hartford Conservation and Gun Club, which the Hartford Police Department also located. The first arriving incident commander found a large grass fire that was being lit and tended to by a person at the Gun Club property. Upon further assessment, there were fires located adjacent to and downwind of the current controlled burn fire area. Dispatch was able to confirm that the fire had been reported to their online controlled burn log, but that information was not immediately available at the time of the fire department activation and deployment.
The following apparatus was deployed from Hartford Fire & Rescue to begin
extinguishment efforts: two brush trucks, an off-road UTV, three fire engines, two water
tenders, two ambulances, two SUV’s for personnel movement, and the incident command post. Under direction of the incident commander, a coordinated fire attack deployed the initial brush units to operate off-road and begin extinguishing the fires. Due to the very high wind conditions pushing burning embers through the air and landing in other dry areas from very low relative humidity (RH) at the time of the fire, crews needed further assistance from surrounding fire departments, which was requested through the MABAS system at the Working Still level. Spreading fires were also located by crews behind UFP Packaging at the extreme North end of Franklin Drive, just South of the railroad tracks. An additional growing fire was also found to be just North of the railroad tracks and spreading toward Hilldale Drive. The growing locations of the fires required three different operational areas and multiple types of resources. Additional assistance was requested to the 1st Box level to ensure enough personnel and apparatus were on scene to handle the growing fire areas.
Fire burning in a heavily wooded area with a large amount of dead trees, along with the high wind conditions, created serious hazards as tree branches and tree tops were snapping off and falling to the ground. This prevented ground crews from safely advancing in and extinguishing all of the fire that was burning at the base of an up the trees. Marsh area in and around the wooded area prevented any heavy apparatus from being able to drive any closer to the fire. Brush truck crews and UTV crews worked quickly and carefully to extinguish any fire they could reach, with tenders supplying water to refill their tanks.
No citizens or fire or EMS personnel were injured during this incident.
Assistance was provided by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office with dispatch services and Deputies for traffic control, and Hartford Police Department with law enforcement assistance. Mutual Aid assistance was provided by St. Lawrence Fire Company, Slinger Fire Department, Neosho Fire Department, Allenton Volunteer Fire Department, Richfield Fire Department, Iron Ridge Fire Department, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Jackson Fire Department who provided an engine at change of quarters, Lifestar EMS who provided an ambulance and responded to the simultaneous EMS call, and Germantown Fire Department who provided an ambulance at change of quarters to cover Hartford’s EMS service area while Lifestar was on assignment. Hartford Water Utility assured that there were no water supply concerns.
