County hears update on large weekend fire

MarionCounty

MarionCounty

The Marion County Board of County Commissioners heard about joint efforts to put out a large fire in Marion County on Sunday, Oct. 23 in their regular Monday meeting.

Emergency Management Interim Director Marcy Hostetler gave a department update as well as let the board know about all of the work that her department and emergency personnel in general put in on putting out a large fire in Marion County on Sunday due to the dry conditions and the high winds.

“Thank you again. We can’t begin to express enough appreciation for all of the work you all put in,” said Chairman Dave Mueller.

“We did have a lot of news crews and people like that out there yesterday. We had a lot of people asking how much acreage and we estimate between 800 and 1,000 acreage. It’s a very rough estimate. We won’t know more until later on. The Kansas Forestry service mentioned that they will get a plane up and do some satellite imagery. The Sheriff said that he is gonna contact someone and see about getting some drone footage,” said Hostetler. “The first call came in yesterday about 11 and due to the fire conditions, Marion Fire immediately requested mutual aid from the Marion County Task Force. The fire did expand pretty quick due to the critical red flag conditions.”

Hostetler explained that assistance was requested from neighboring counties which meant that there were a total of five counties helping to fight the fires.

“It was very nice that all of these other counties were out there since Kansas was basically on fire yesterday and not just Marion County,” said Hostetler. “We did get help from the state. We had a plane come and get four or five drops (of water).”

She told the board that she learned of a state mutual aid channel that she could have used to help out with communication since cell phone reception was bad in places. She will be able to use this in the future now that she is aware of it.

Hostetler and Sheriff Soyez told the board that they got many calls as well as people showing up to volunteer to help or bring food, gasoline and other needed items. They will be working on a press release to thank all of the people who gave during this time.

Sheriff Soyez expressed gratitude that there was no loss of life or livestock thanks to the hard work of all involved.

Hostetler completed her department update and then met with the board in executive session for personnel discussion. After the session, the board announced that Hostetler would no longer be the interim director but would now be the Emergency Management Director.

In other business, the board:

n held a morning work session with township trustees regarding roads. No action was taken.

n met in executive session for a personnel discussion. No action was taken.

n met with Prairie View staff to discuss the contract the county has with the company in order to have mentally ill prisoners evaluated when needed. The staff explained that the need for mental health services is on the rise all over the state and there is a rising demand for most services.

n heard department updates from Marion County Lake Superintendent Isaac Hett. Hett said they will be stocking the lake in the next three weeks and then will stock it in the spring next year. Hett also said the Chili cook-off was a big success this year with a turn-out of around 400 people.

n heard Road and Bridge updates from County Engineer Brice Goebel.

n met in executive session for EMS Director position.

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