No rain, just fire and frost in Faulkton

By Faulk County Record

With no precipitation of any kind during the last three weeks, the fire danger is high and local volunteer fire departments deployed to three fires starting Sept. 14. Temperatures dropped to 31 in Faulkton on Sept. 17 and fell to 22 in Aberdeen on Sept. 23.

“The weather has been pretty quiet, and it’s nice and cool this morning (Sept. 18),” said Kirk Hoefert. “Without any moisture things have been pretty dry. Right now they’re going after the corn and beans. I’m hearing the beans are about 25 bushels per acre or up to 40 per acre in some spots. Corn I’m hearing is about 70 bushels per acre at its worst. We could sure use some good old rain out of that sky, and because it’s so dry I got to see the fields up close in a fire truck.”

“We (the Seneca Volunteer Fire Department) and a lot of our friends from the other local fire departments went out on three calls last week, on Friday and Sunday. One out at Hamburger Farms, one at Tom Hellers, both corn field fires and then out to Brentwood Sunday. Sunday, because of the wind, the fire was worse and harder to put out than it might have been. So everyone, make sure you take as many precautions as you can and use caution when
you’re out there.”

Faulkton fireman Shane Machtemes went out on those same fire calls. “We’ve certainly been out quite a bit. Hopefully we’ll have some rain soon,” he said. “On Friday at Hamburger’s the fire started with a combine, and at Tom Heller’s it was a silage cutter. At Brentwood
Colony it was also a combine in a bean field. Everybody use caution while you’re out there working and if you have a problem don’t hesitate to call it in.”

“We’ve had no precipitation for the last three and a half weeks,” said Shannon Waldman in Onaka. “It would be better if we got some rain to help with this fire index. Hopefully the cooler weather might help with that too. Some guys are getting started on corn
around here, and some are still cutting hay in ditches and such. Soybeans are coming out at about 25-35 bushels per acre from what I’ve heard.”