By Kalin Krohe, Panhandle Post
The Chadron Volunteer Fire Department fought two fires in Dawes County on July 30.
The first fire was a baler that caught fire near the Chadron city dam at 10:30 a.m.
"It did start three or four small little fires and then one larger one next to the baler...probably three-quarters to an acre in size," Chadron Fire Chief Branden Martens said. "The baler did burn up as well."
Martens said they used six Chadron fire trucks and two from the Nebraska Forest Service.
"They [Nebraska Forest Service] were right in the vicinity so they bumped over," Martens said. "They were actually there first and knocked down the very small fires. Then we came in and assisted on the rest of the grass and then the baler fire."
The second fire started around 3:30 p.m. by the rail yard roundhouse.
"It was paged out as a rail road tie fire," Martens said. "There's a company from Texas here and they are scrapping out all the old rail equipment. And so all that stuff...it was more as less stacked along the old rail yard. They're going through and cutting it apart [motors and iron]. They had one that when they were torching it, it ended up sparking and caught some hydraulic hoses. Old grease and that kind of stuff was burning. It burned on a rail car maintenance vehicle."
Martens said he wasn't sure the damage the fire caused to the rail car vehicle.
Six Chadron fire trucks assisted with that fire.
Martens said no one was harmed during the fires.
"The land owner on the baler fire was able to get his tractor unhooked," Martens said. "There was no damage to his tractor. Then on the rail equipment...being that it's still going to go to scrap, there's really no value lost there. We had a busy day, but everything went well."