It has been quite windy across the area lately, making it difficult to do several different things, including fight fires.

The Perry Volunteer Fire Department had an especially busy day Friday as they responded to five different fire calls.

It started at around 10:40am, when Doug Volz reported his controlled weed and grass burn at 2100 N Avenue had gotten out of hand.  When the fire started to threaten buildings, machinery and timber, Volz knew he couldn’t hand it himself and called for help.

According to Perry Fire Chief Chris Hinds, by the time they arrived on scene just before 11am, the fire had spread across nearly 30 acres of Conservation Reserve Program ground.  With the help of the Woodward Fire Department, neighboring farmers who brought equipment to help create a break and a DNR forestry firefighter, crews were able to extinguish the fire after about three hours.

The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office and Department of Transportation was also called to the scene to help provide traffic control after heavy smoke and ash made it difficult for motorists on Highway 169 to see.

Less than an hour after firefighters left the scene, they were called back to 2100 N Avenue when the fire flared back up.  Crews were able to extinguish the small trees and grass in the fence line within about an hour.

Also on Friday, the Perry Fire Department was called to a small leaf pile fire at 1820 West Second Street around 11:30am, asked to assist in fighting a machine shed fire north of Rippey around 2:15pm and called to help extinguish six small trees that were on fire at 12360 K Drive around 4:15pm.