Crawford fire chief Brian Prosser says that crews responded to three fires in Dawes County on Monday following a round of severe weather.
The largest of the three fires, the Cuda Fire by Belmont, burned 50 acres and has a dozer line established around it and will continue consuming old timber and putting up smoke over the next few days.
A fire by Hough Road and Section Line Road, the Section Line Fire, burned just an acre and another fire, the Viper Fire at Cottonwood and Milo, burned just an acre. Both have been contained and controlled according to Prosser.
Those that responded to the fires include the Crawford Fire Department, Chadron Fire Department, Harrison Fire Department, Dawes County, the US Forest Service and several ranchers.
Earlier on Monday fires were reported in Sioux County. Harrison fire chief Slim Reece said that a fire called in on River Road, west of the Marsland area in Sioux County, was handled by the Hemingford fire department with assistance from Harrison and was then turned back over to the landowner.
Reece also says that smoke was reported on Andrews Road southeast of Harrison but a fire was never found.
One fire in rural Dawes County early Monday afternoon was quickly extinguished by rains that accompanied Monday’s thunderstorms.