Cozad firefighters at a staging point near the grass fire near Road 761, (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
COZAD — Firefighters with Cozad and Lexington responded to a grass fire amid dangerous Red Flag Warning conditions east of Coad during the afternoon of Tuesday, Feb. 17.
Around 1 p.m., the Cozad Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched to the area of 761 and 424 Road for the report of a grass fire in a field. Additional trucks were immediately paged for more manpower.
By 1:35 p.m., the Lexington Volunteer Fire Department was paged to provide mutual aid.
On scene, pivots were turned on throughout the area to provide some moisture to the dry fields. Farmers from across the region also arrived with tractors and discs to create fire breaks.
Firefighters and farmers were operating along the stretch of 761 in fields north of the paved road between 424 and 428.
According to the National Weather Service – Hastings, widespread critical fire weather conditions were likely this afternoon into the evening, and improvement will be usually slow this evening.
“The most intense fire weather conditions still appear to favor areas along and west of Highway 183, where there may be the greatest overlap of 40-50 MPH wind gusts and RHs only in the low to mid-teens,” per NWS Hastings.
