Area and Wisconsin DNR fire officials say wild land fires are up significantly this year so far

EAU CLAIRE COUNTY, Wis. (WEAU) – A grass fire just south of Eau Claire is one of several that fire crews responded to in recent days.

“7 fires over the course of a week is a pretty busy week. Historically for how often our agency responds to fires,” said Andrew Sorenson.

He is a team leader with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Forestry Division. Sorenson said the dry conditions have kept him and others responding to fire busy this year.

“We actually started our year really early. Our first fire in Augusta here was actually February 2nd. Which is very odd. We’re normally under snow cover,” said Sorenson.

The 7 fires he mentioned were for areas considered east of Eau Claire, which include: Augusta, Neillsville, Black River Falls and slightly up north Jim Falls.

He said there is a range of causes he knows of when it comes to the fires, and they include stray ambers and cigarette butts among other things.

“The last 7 days, our number cause has been down power lines. That’s a function of these high wind speeds that we’ve had,” said Sorenson.

“They spread really fast and can be much larger with the wind driven and the dry conditions we have currently,” said Altoona Fire Department Chief Mark Renderman.

He communicates with area fire departments through his role as president of the Eau Claire County Fire Chiefs Association.

“We’re responding to more grass fires, and even grass fires that are in your backyard, has been an increase this year than in years past,” said Renderman. “I would say we’re probably seeing about a 30% increase in wild land fires this year than last year.”

There are chances for precipitation in the coming days, but officials say that probably won’t be enough.

“We can have rain one day, and if we have a nice warm, blue, beautiful, sunshine day the next day, those grasses will be ready to burn,” said Sorenson.

He and Chief Renderman said things should ease up as the grass, and landscapes in general, become greener.

Sorenson said in the past 7 days there have been 87 wild land fires that burned 100 acres state-wide.

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