The farmer was enjoying the cool Kansas day swathing hay one mile west and one mile north of Belpre. Then the swather threw a spark and the day’s enjoyment ended. The loose, dry hay was on fire.

It didn’t take long for the brisk Kansas wind to launch the fire full speed across the field – too fast for the farmer to get it stopped without a lot of help from the fire department. And, before the fire was done, Edwards County had called in their full Calvary – Trousdale, Lewis, Kinsley, & Belpre – and just to make sure they invited Stafford County.

Smoke blanked out the bright sun as the fire quickly reached the next mile roadway. And, then it jumped to the other side of the road in several spots. But, firefighters quickly extinguished the roadway jump and narrowed down the entire fire to an old homestead tree grove.

Once confined to the tree grove all the firefighters converged upon it. Approximately thirty minutes later the fire was out except some smoldering dead trees. The fire also burned several major electrical line poles in the middle of the section, dropping some of the charged lines.

Workers from the power company arrived on scene while firefighters mopped up.