People just don’t seem to realize just how flammable this time of year is.

Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, said that last year was a relatively “wet” year around this time and this year’s low humidity and warm temperatures can create a recipe for a fire disaster.

“Last week we had humidities down around 10 percent – unheard of – [you] have temperatures up above 60, above 70 and that just makes things even drier; and then you have wind speeds gusting over 20, 25 miles per hour,” said Otte.

If a fire starts in those low humidity, high wind conditions – you can’t control it.

“People think you can control [it], no you can not – those fires can catch up with a car driving 50 or 60 miles per hour, it’s unsafe,” said Otte. “The rapidly expanding gases, because it’s burning so fast create this outflow effect, and you add that to the going wind speed and now all of sudden you have 40 miles and hour winds and the fire is moving 50 or 60 miles an hour.”

When fires spread across the Great Plains and Western part of the United States, many often wonder ‘why can’t they just put it out’ – it’s not that simple.

“The fire itself has too much energy, there is not enough water and equipment to counteract that energy, all you can do is try to find a way to make a natural fire break,” said Otte.

The wildfires in Kansas earlier this month burned more than 651,000 acres across the state, affecting 20 counties.

Otte will be part of a Prescribed Burning Roundtable on Tuesday, March 21st at the Geary County 4-H/Senior Citizens Building located at 1025 S. Spring Valley Road in Junction City.

The discussion will be co-hosted by the Geary County Extension Office, in conjunction with Geary County Emergency Management Services and the Kansas Livestock Association.

This program is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Chuck Otte at 238-4161 or cotte@ksu.edu.