Watson Fire Protection battled its first two field fires of the year this week.
At 12:47 p.m. on Wednesday, Watson firefighters responded to a field fire sparked by a burning vehicle near East 1000th Avenue. While Watson tried to contain the fire that traveled across the corn field, they dispatched for assistance from neighboring community fire stations, including firefighters from Effingham, Teutopolis and Shumway.
It took roughly an hour and a half for the fire units to extinguish the blaze. All units cleared the scene after roughly two hours.
Watson Fire Chief Cole Marxman said the crew would not have stopped the fire on their own.
“Our biggest help was the local area farmers that came out and used tractors and discs to help kind of play catch up and cut all the fire off,” Marxman said. “The Equity had some water tanker trucks there too.”
On Thursday morning, the crew was sent back out to battle a smaller field fire between Mason and Watson, where eight to 10 acres of soybeans burned. Watson firefighters stopped the blaze from reaching another field of standing soybeans.
The fire was in the “middle of the field” and WFPD is still “unsure” about how it started, according to Marxman. His crew got the fire extinguished within 10 to 15 minutes and were on the scene for about 30 minutes.
He added that the amount of field fires Watson sees changes from year-to-year.
“They’re really hit or miss,” Marxman said. “There might be years where we might only have a couple to none, and there might be years when we have a bunch.”
Wednesday’s and Thursday’s field fires were the first ones Watson has had this year, and is on pace for the amount they have in a typical year, according to Marxman. However, the continuous dry weather and wind can make a field fire on open land hard to contain, he said.
“If a fire were to ignite, they take off pretty quick, which can make it hard,” Marxman said. “The drier it gets, definitely the worse it can be.”
While the dry season poses a risk for crops to catch on fire, local fire departments in Effingham County urge the community to take necessary precautions, like properly maintaining vehicles and combines, to avoid more field fires from occurring in the rural region.
Effingham Fire Chief Brant Yochum said that the Effingham Fire Department was called to the scene Wednesday and assisted Watson firefighters extinguish the blaze, direct ongoing traffic and utilize thermal drones to inspect the standing cornfields for remaining heat after the fire.
He added that communities near large fields of crops should remain cautious during this time of the year.
“I don’t want to say they (field fires) are common, but they’re not uncommon,” Yochum said. “We just ask everybody to be real cautious about it especially when it’s a little dry.”
“When it gets dry like this and farmers are operating machinery that gets really hot sometimes that can spark a little fire and it can turn into a bigger fire,” he added.
Teutopolis Fire Chief Tim McMahon did not work on Wednesday when his fire station responded to the fire in Watson. However, he acknowledged that firefighters in Teutopolis Fire Protection fight field fires at least once every year and said it’s “fairly common.”
He added that most farmers in Teutopolis move with caution during the dry season and are relatively prepared when it comes to cleaning their machines off or air blowing them off.
These safety measures make sure the farming machinery doesn’t overheat or light a spark during parched weather conditions.
“Most farmers are really good about taking precautions to avoid that problem,” McMahon said. “But sometimes it’s out of their hands.”
Marxman also said dust buildup in combines are behind many of these field fires in Watson and a hot bearing can set off dry dust and crops nearby. Blowing out combines each night can help, but it can’t completely rule out a chance for a brush fire.
With harvest about halfway done and many fields still standing, Marxman said Watson is prepared to fight more field fires if they occur.
“There’s really not a sure way to prevent it,” Marxman said. “If it wants to happen, it’s going to happen.”