Bennington Fire assisting neighboring agencies during wildfires

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) -This time of the year can be busy for fire departments. Thursday, 10 wildfires sparked up across eastern Nebraska.

Bennington Fire & Rescue stayed on standby as nearby crews battled wildfires; keeping an eye on the neighborhood incase an emergency kicked off.

"There's a lot of times where we need help," said Fire Chief Dan Mallory. "So, if we get something major within Bennington or within our fire district, we are relying on these smaller communities, a lot of them are volunteers, they come in and help us out."

The department is equipped with 14 full time firefighters and about 40 volunteers to on busy days.

Chief Mallory says the department's volunteers are split into two tiers. Tier one are volunteers who respond to incidents from their home. Tier two consists of 12 to 24 hour shifts where crews live at the station while on shift, ready to respond at a moments notice.

Chief Mallory says Bennington Fire relies on its volunteers to assist not only their department but the 28 area agencies they are in agreement with. When a large fire breaks out or multiple calls happen at once, Bennington will ask for help from smaller neighboring volunteer stations. However in some cases, it can be hard to staff these smaller departments.

"Everybody is struggling to get more personnel," explained Mallory. "So especially during the daytime, personnel is limited. There are not a lot of people that are available to respond Monday though Friday at maybe 1 o'clock in the afternoon so they start pulling resources from other departments which then delays response," said Mallory.

His crew has equipment and vehicles like a brush truck to help if, or when another fire pops up. Things aren't any easier when dry and windy conditions keep fire risk high.

"I know we've have tremendous drought and the conditions have just been so dry," said Mallory. "When you mix in the dry conditions, low humidity and high wind its a recipe for disaster."

Douglas County has been in a burn ban since September.

"When it is extremely windy outside that's not the time to be working in the yard or try to mow tall grass or drive through tall grass," said Mallory. "Probably a good time to stay at home, stay inside, and not work in the wildland environment."