Saline County issues disaster declaration after last week's wildfire

A formal disaster declaration was adopted this week by the Saline County Board of Commissioners after a wildfire threatened part of the county on Feb. 29.

Michelle Weis, director of Saline County Emergency Management, brought forward the declaration to the commission Tuesday, which allows the county to receive resources from agencies outside the county, including from the state of Kansas.

"We did do three aerial drops (of water) for it, which is the need for the disaster declaration," Weis said. "We did utilize state resources, for the aerial mapping (of the area) and the water drops."

During the commission meeting, Weis said there were around 50 units on scene for mutual aid during the disaster including fire departments and even emergency management from outside the county.

"My office was out of town for training, so a lot of this response (from us) was done from the back of a classroom," Weis said. "I did have an (emergency manager) from Dickinson County come and was on site for us."

In addition to Dickinson, Weis said there was aid received from Ottawa, Lincoln and Ellsworth Counties as well.

Before making the declaration official with a vote, Commissioner Rodger Sparks said he was thankful for the response from everyone involved in containing the fire.

"I was just totally impressed with the amount of support (we received), to keep this fire from not going any further than it did," Sparks said.

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Weis agreed, saying the response from agencies meant there was no property, or life lost. She particularly noted the response from Saline County Rural Fire District No. 3.

"I can only imagine how difficult it was for the District 3 firefighters not only to respond to the fire, but to have their homes threatened at the same time, and to decide the difference between (protecting) their own property but also the property of their community," Weis said.

In the end, the commission voted unanimously to approve the formal declaration, backdated to begin on Feb. 29, the date of the fire, to March 7.

In an email to the Journal, Weis said that more details about the fire, including an assessment of damage, will be released after a meeting on March 7.

This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Saline County issues disaster declaration after wildfire