Fire crews are warning of dry dangerous conditions.
GAYLORD -- Dry conditions making for very high fire danger Wednesday, Friday is expected to be even worse.
Fire crews are on high alert and that's because 98 percent of wildfires in Michigan are caused by humans, many of them breaking the law. The leaves sitting on the floor of these woods look harmless, but the fact is, they're ready to be the threatening fuel to a spreading wildfire given ignition.
Don Klingler, DNRE Fire Officer Supervisor says, "With the snow leaving so early, things are dry, they're getting cured, and now the warmer temperatures than normal, and that's going to play into having a serious fire season."
The fire danger was evident in Wednesday's blaze that claimed 62 acres in the Southeastern portion of Roscommon County near Dunham Lake. The fire began in control, in a fire pit, but the people of this camper left without it being completely extinguished. Now, they'll have a ticket to pay for letting the fire out of control, and they'll also be forced to pay for the fire crews that were called to contain it.
Bill O'Neill, DNRE Field Coordinator says, "That can be thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes these fires burn into the ground, they're difficult to put out, requires a lot of man-power, so it can be an expensive bill."
The lack of precipitation has the fire danger very high Wednesday, but add even warmer temperatures and higher winds on Friday, it could be red flag extreme.
Klingler says, "Common sense is going to go a long ways. It's not illegal to have a campfire, but realistically, with the situation that we're in, it's darn near dangerous to have one of those fires."
O'Neill says, "Just don't burn. Unfortunately, most of our forest fires start from somebody burning, so if we can get folks not to burn during these dry conditions, we can significantly reduce the number of forest fires we have in Michigan."
These men and women will be the remedy for any fire -- until the ultimate fix falls from the sky. Until rain, rain, comes again, these full-size Tonka trucks and ready-to-fight fire crews will be standing by.
