Update: Field, brush fire near Edgerton reignites
Firefighters from four departments battled a blaze in a wheat field that spread into adjacent woods Wednesday afternoon in the town of Sumner.
Just when crews thought the fire was out, it came back to life later Wednesday, a fire department official said.
Firefighters from Edgerton, Milton and Stoughton and Evansville fought a “stubborn” fire in a 10-acre wheat field that owners said had recently been harvested, Edgerton Deputy Fire Chief Ryan Beckwith said. The fire continued to flare up for over three hours and reignited later.
The fire was reported shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday in the area of Olson Road and Bingham Road near the west end of Lake Koshkonong just inside Jefferson County, Beckwith said.
The fire flashed through the field, burning an area of about 2 acres before flames jumped into adjacent woods, Beckwith said. The fire burned about an acre of trees and brush before crews extinguished the fire.
It took crews 30 minutes and about 5,800 gallons of water to knock down the fire, he said. It took another three hours to extinguish flare-ups in the field, which is surrounded on three sides by woods.
Fire crews returned from the fire only to be called back to the area a few hours later when part of the woods that had burned reignited itself, Beckwith said. Firefighters returned and put another 4,500 gallons of water on the fire, extinguishing it again.
It’s not uncommon for burned brush and trees to reignite later, Beckwith said. He said that tinder-dry conditions were probably a factor in the fire rekindling.
A nearby residential area was unaffected by the fires. A cause of the fire was not known.
Dry conditions locally are worsening, which is creating increased fire hazards, Beckwith said. Rock County and the Edgerton Fire District are still under an advisory open burn ban.
