by Mike Lyon, Mapleton Press

The Mapleton & Danbury Fire Departments spend much of 
the afternoon on of April 2 battling this fire.

  What started out as a regular control fire for the Monona County Conservation staff turned into an out-of-control fire.

      On Wednesday morning, April 2, five employees of Monona County Conservation started a control burn at approximately 10:00 a.m. on the Conservation's boards Beaver Run land, located northeast of Mapleton. The burn started out fine, but it jumped a creek and got out of control. The Conservation crew started to run low on water and the fire was soon more than they could handle. The Mapleton Fire Department was called to assist and then the Danbury Fire Dept. was also called for mutual aid at approximately 3:45 p.m.

According to fire chief Jerry Bumstead, the fire consumed about 100 acres and they worked on getting the fire under control until 6:00 p.m. An old abandoned farm house on the Marvin Sonksen farm was burned in the fire and also consumed a stand of prairie grass and a tree planting on the Sonksen property.

A controlled burn, according to Doug Kuhlmann, an employee of Monona County Conservation, is when fields or ditches are burned off to get rid of trash and brome on the land. It helps stimulate the prairie and that cuts off the trash that isn't wanted. It also helps enhance the growth of wild flowers.

In the picture above the black smoke rises over a near-by farmstead. PRESS PHOTOS by Mike Lyon

    

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