busy firefighters
ABOVE: THE TRACY FIRE DEPARTMENT assisted at a massive prairie grass fire at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday at 1215 Lyon County Road 7, just west of Garvin. Other departments responding to the blaze were Balaton, Russell, Lynd, Garvin, Slayton, Marshall and Walnut Grove. A DNR helicopter was called in to battle the blaze from above. “It wasn’t a prescribed burn,” Balaton Fire Chief Kasey Holm said. “It’s undetermined how it started. There was a variable wind, but inaccessibility to the area was a big problem; it is a very low, swampy area. There is water intermixed — it’s marshy land down in there. We stopped it on the south side right away with a back burn, then the helicopter came in on the northeast side.” Tracy also assisted Walnut Grove at a barn fire 17397 Camp Ave. on the Schmiesing farm site 9.5 miles northeast of Tracy on April 18. The TFD received the call for manpower assistance at 3:06 p.m. Walnut Grove firefighters are shown a left attacking the blaze from above after cutting a hole in the roof of the barn. Photos / Per Peterson
