Salina firefighters spent the night at the limb-burning pits on Markley Road, after one of the pits ignited shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday.
Battalion Chief Jim Weese said city workers thought the pit — used to burn limbs felled by the December ice storm — had cooled. They piled on more limbs, in preparation for the next time conditions were favorable for a burn.
Hot embers at the bottom of the pile apparently ignited the limbs.
The city wasn’t set up for a night burn, and it also was too windy for a controlled burn, so firefighters were called to extinguish the blaze.
Weese said the firefighters had to use heavy equipment periodically to pull limbs off the pile, then extinguished the burning embers underneath. That took until 9 or 9:30 p.m.
“It was just a matter of digging some out, wetting it down, then stirring it up a little and dragging out more burned portions,” Weese said.
Firefighers stayed at the site until 7 a.m., to make sure the limbs didn’t ignite again.
Before they left, Weese said, the firefighters wetted down both pits, so city workers could pile on limbs in preparation for their next burn.
©Salina Journal