{"id":653693,"date":"2026-05-20T03:58:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/653693\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T03:58:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:58:26","slug":"reinforcements-give-kansas-crews-badly-needed-break-from-dayslong-wildfire-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/653693\/","title":{"rendered":"Reinforcements give Kansas crews badly needed break from dayslong wildfire battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) \u2014 Over the last several days, wildfires have forced the towns of Fowler, Meade and Ashland to evacuate.<\/p>\n

Those fires didn\u2019t make it into the towns, but the fight has taken a toll on local crews and equipment.<\/p>\n

In a brief interview, exhausted Ashland Fire Chief Bill Neier said that after five days on the frontlines, his crews and equipment are at their breaking point. His trucks are still not at full capacity after February\u2019s Ranger Road Fire.<\/p>\n

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Wildfire near Ashland (Courtesy: Ashland Fire Department)<\/p>\n

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Wildfire near Ashland (Courtesy: Ashland Fire Department)<\/p>\n

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Wildfire near Ashland (Courtesy: Ashland Fire Department)<\/p>\n

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Wildfire in Clark County. (Courtesy: Conway Springs Fire Department)<\/p>\n

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Wildfire in Clark County. (Courtesy: Conway Springs Fire Department)<\/p>\n

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Wildfire in Clark County (Courtesy: Crawford County Emergency Management)<\/p>\n

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Wildfire in Clark County (Courtesy: Crawford County Emergency Management)<\/p>\n

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Wildfire in Clark County (Courtesy: Crawford County Emergency Management)<\/p>\n

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Wildfire in Clark County (Courtesy: Crawford County Emergency Management)<\/p>\n

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Wildfire in Clark County (Courtesy: Crawford County Emergency Management)<\/p>\n

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Wildfire near Ashland (Courtesy: Riley County Fire District 1)<\/p>\n

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Wildfire in Clark County (Courtesy: Shawnee County Fire District 4)<\/p>\n

While the fight nears a week in length, Neier also said the tide seems to be turning as countless fire departments from across the state and the country flood in to help.<\/p>\n

Riley County Fire District 1 is one of those departments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get out into the smaller rural communities and everybody\u2019s volunteer, they have their day jobs, and it\u2019s crucial to get their outside resources in to boost your capabilities for the duration of that disaster,\u201d Chief Russel Stukey said.<\/p>\n

Fundraiser set up for victims of southwest Kansas wildfires <\/a><\/p>\n

Stukey sent units at the request of the state on Friday. They fought fires through Saturday and returned home safely on Sunday, around 4 a.m.<\/p>\n

Crews like his are necessary to give local, mostly volunteer-run departments, a break so they can rest and repair their vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce your volunteers have been out there for 10, 12 hours, especially for a couple days in a row, they\u2019re just wore out,\u201d Stukey said. \u201cYou just need relief and more manpower so they can get a decent rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dangerous fire conditions push Kansas crews to their limits <\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks to crews like Stukey\u2019s, Ashland Chief Neier got a day off while other crews picked up the slack. He used the day to work on equipment and get some much-needed sleep.<\/p>\n

For more Kansas news,\u00a0click here<\/a>. Keep up with the latest breaking news by downloading our\u00a0mobile app<\/a>\u00a0and signing up for our\u00a0news email alerts<\/a>. Sign up for our Storm Track 3 Weather app by\u00a0clicking here<\/a>. To watch our shows live on our website, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) \u2014 Over the last several days, wildfires have forced the towns of Fowler, Meade and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[260196,4,450,31667,281818,29486,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-653693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-ashland-fire-department","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-clark-county","tag-crawford-county-emergency-management","tag-fire-department","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}