Fire crests a hill and approaches houses on the north side of Lake McConaughy Thursday night, just west of the Lake McConaughy dam, looking north. (Courtesy of Jake Wyatt/Nebraska Rural Radio Association)
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LINCOLN — Nebraska first responders have spent the past 24 hours chasing and fighting 24 reported wildfires fed by high winds, and federal officials are fighting another near Halsey.
That’s the report Friday from the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, which helps coordinate state and local disaster response and works with the Nebraska National Guard.
Much of Nebraska has been under a red-flag warning, which indicates conditions are dry enough for an increased risk of wildfires and wind to spread them more quickly.
Gov. Jim Pillen, in a tweet Friday, said he had declared an emergency in Arthur, Dawson, Frontier, Garden, Keith, Lincoln and Morrill Counties to “help combat wildfires.”
NEMA spokeswoman Katrina Cerveny said the disaster-response agency is working with locals to closely monitor three large wildfires in central and west-central Nebraska.
They’re watching the massive Morrill County Fire that the State Fire Marshal’s Office told NEMA was burning as much as 300,000 acres in parts of Morrill, Garden, Keith and Arthur Counties.
That’s the blaze drawing social media attention overnight for flames forcing evacuations near parts of Lake McConaughy, a frequent tourist destination near Lemoyne. Already six structures have been destroyed in the fire, NEMA said.
The state is also watching the Cottonwood Fire in Lincoln, Dawson and Frontier Counties, which NEMA said was burning about 50,000 acres of grassland not far from North Platte. At least 300 people remain evacuated from Dawson County, NEMA said.
And NEMA is watching the Anderson Bridge Fire in the Kilgore-Cody area, which the state said is burning about 5,000 acres and destroyed at least one structure.
Thus far, no injuries or deaths have been reported in any of the three fires, or in a fourth fire on federal land near Halsey, according to the Nebraska National Forest.
Federal fire crews are battling the Road 203 Fire, a 35,000-acre blaze on federal land in north-central Nebraska, in Thomas and Blaine Counties near the Nebraska National Forest.
The rush of fires comes as responders in Lancaster and Gage Counties are still fighting spot fires from Thursday’s flare up while others assess the damage in southeast Nebraska.
This is a developing story. It was last updated at 11:58 a.m.
This story is provided by States Newsroom, a nonprofit state news network and Blox Digital content partner.
