The Douglas County Board of Commissioners declared a state of local disaster emergency for the county Wednesday, April 16th, due to two large grassfires that are currently under control and contained. The declaration provides access to state resources. According to Deputy Douglas County Emergency Management Director, John Stipetich, due to the size of the grass fires in heavily forested areas, a large number of resources from Douglas County and neighboring counties were required to bring the fires under control and mitigate the risk of them spreading.
Firefighters from 12 fire department including Northwest Fire from Franklin County, along with officials from the Kansas Wildlife and Parks, Kansas Forestry Service, the Army Corp of Engineers and Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Communications Center and public works responded to the fires, which were at 176 north 21-50 road in the northwest part of Douglas County and at 125 north 11-50 road, west of Clinton Lake. Those fires were finally under control late Wednesday night.
