Ranchers fight hard to save houses, cows and hay bales

Rancher Ed Koger could see two fires burning in the distance as he fed his cattle Thursday.

His family has a sizable ranch that includes parts of Barber, Comanche and Kiowa counties. They’ve had it for four generations.

But this fire, he says, is unlike any other in the region’s modern history. It has burned more than 400 square miles of south-central Kansas this week, and it’s not likely to stop any time soon.

So far the Kogers’ Hashknife Ranch hasn’t burned.

But others have.

Koger and his son, Jared, helped a neighbor fight fire on a nearby 13,000-acre ranch Wednesday. About 95 percent of it burned.

“People are mainly just trying to save houses,” he said.

One rancher lost several hundred bales of hay near his house.

“At least we did save the house.”

‘Not just a grass fire’

Mark Dugan owns a 2,640-acre ranch about nine miles west of Medicine Lodge. He thinks nearly all of his grassland burned.

Dugan, who lives in Goddard, drove out Wednesday night to survey the damage. It was the little things that caught his attention.

The guard rails on U.S. 160 had fallen off of burned wood posts that once supported them.

Flames 40 to 50 feet high burned in ancient cottonwood trees along the Medicine Lodge River.

Neighbors took turns guarding fallen power lines because the poles were burned and they feared someone might get hurt.

“You think of all the volunteers and people from all over the state – ranchers – everybody working to fight these fires,” Dugan said.

A quick-thinking hired hand and rancher saved Dugan’s 300 head of cattle by moving the livestock to a field containing green winter wheat. But the fences have all burned.

It will cost $5,000 to $7,000 a mile to replace the fence. He has 15 miles to replace.

“Everybody woke up this morning and is calling one another,” Dugan said. “Nobody knows yet just what all the devastation is. This is not just a grass fire. It is going to be really hard for everybody to comprehend the scope of damage.”

‘Pins and needles’

The size of the fire, covering so many miles, has rural volunteer fire departments stretched thin. Some ranchers have been left to their own devices to try to battle blazes.

One rancher had only one other person helping battle the fire on his about 40,000 acres on Wednesday, Koger said. That rancher lost his home to the flames.

The Kogers have some firefighting gear to help them control fires that they set sometimes in spring to help grass and destroy unwanted plants like cedar trees.

Cedar trees on some ranches are helping the fire spread. Koger watched the fire jump up to a half-mile as things like burning cedar limbs blew in the wind Tuesday.

Koger’s son and a neighboring rancher rode the ranch Thursday morning looking for an estimated 400 cow-calf pairs.

There were some areas of green grass where cattle could have escaped the flames. It’s unclear how many cattle have died. Some could be burned so badly they’ll have to be euthanized.

Koger gets no comfort when he looks to the weather forecast, which calls for the wind to shift back from the south on Friday. If so, his ranch will be in direct line with where fires are burning Thursday.

“It’s got me on pins and needles,” he said. “With these winds we could be getting fires popping back up for the next week, or until it rains.

“I need to get back to feeding cattle. After that I have to go fight some fires.”

This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 3:44 PM with the headline "Ranchers fight hard to save houses, cows and hay bales."