There was a big grass fire in Clearwater Twp. late Wednesday afternoon. But members of Clearwater Fire & Rescue were there to put it out. 

In fact, they were there before it started.

 

It was a controlled grass fire burn on the O’Brien property off Fillmore Ave. -  something the department has been doing each year for many years.

 

“It’s a training exercise,” said Assistant Fire Chief Nick Eldred. “We’ve done different fields in different years so we’re not always burning the same stuff. We try to do up to a half dozen burns a year.”

 

The department offers its services to land owners who need to control grass and weeds, and members of the department get to train at the same time. 

   

“A lot of the people we do burns for are in the CRP programs for wildlife and land management. They have an agreement with DNR,” said Eldred. “They have us do it and maybe give a donation to the department for our time and services.”

 

It allows them to pay less than to have a private organization come in and do the burn.

 

Wednesday, between 15 and 20 firefighters gathered at the fire hall to get suited up, prepare their equipment and vehicles and talk about the plan. It was a windy day, with gusts up to 30 miles per hour. But Eldred said it wouldn’t be a problem. He said they haven’t had any issues in previous controlled burns.

 

“We use the wind to our advantage. We burn a V-pattern around the base of the field with the wind blowing against it,” he said. “Then we circle around and let it burn into itself.”

 

The burn was done under the supervision of trainer Bob Quady, retired from the DNR.

 

“He’ll be giving pointers on wind direction, placement, safety and attack options,” said Eldred. We try to work in different configurations.”

 

The department makes sure they never let the burn get too big at one time.

 

“We need to know that when we’re burning, if we had to leave people to go to a different fire or medical call, that we could leave a small crew to manage the burn,” said Eldred. “We could easily slow things down.”

 

As they started the burn and followed it around the field, the wind blew lots of ominous black smoke towards the river. But it was all under control.

 

“If this was a typical grass fire we were responding to minutes after a call and after it had a chance to get angry, today would not be a fun day to be fighting grass fires,” said Eldred. “But it’s a perfect day to train.”