City-sized areas burn during an unusual early start to wildfire season

HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) - With an abnormal early start to wildfire season well on its way, I wanted to take a moment to put things in perspective as far as how much land has been burned. Specifically looking at the two largest fires which have occurred this month.

The first of the largest fires, infamously known as the 739 fire, started on April 7th in Gosper county. It scorched roughly 35,000 acres over a 22 mile stretch from Gosper county into Furnas county. The total area burned was about the size of the city of Miami, Florida or 55.25 square miles. The second and larger of the two fires, named the 702 fire, started April 22nd and is still ongoing with 74% containment. It has burned a little under 42,000 acres over a 27 mile stretch from Norton county Kansas north along the Red Willow-Furnas county line up to the Frontier county. The area that has been burned by this fire is comparable to the size of our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. Now if we combine just the total area of just these two wildfires, it would take up the area shaded in blue around Omaha or about 119 square miles. While this may not seem like a large area, the biggest impact has been many lives affected by the damage it has done and the few lives it has taken.

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