Local Firefighters Battle Curry Timber Blaze
In the early morning hours of Saturday, March 28, the 3-and-33 Mutual Aid Wildland Task Force was called to assist north of Peru with the Curry Timber fire that had broken out the afternoon before. This fire was in heavy timber understory and with the red flag weather conditions, help was needed to get a cold perimeter around the fire.
Apparatus and personnel from Fairbury Rural Fire Department, Diller Fire and Rescue, Barneston Rural Volunteer Fire Department, Plymouth Volunteer Fire Department, Wymore Fire and Blue Springs Fire responded to assist. They were just part of 170 responders from 25 departments battling the blaze.
The task force was assigned the Alpha division along with Sutton Fire. Crews took down large dead cottonwood trees that were threatening the perimeter of the fire as well as doing some burnout operations.
Later in the day, the taskforce was joined by crews from Grayback Forestry, who were already positioned in Central Nebraska due to the other fires.
This work was to ensure firefighters could get two chains (132 feet) of area along the edges of the fire that had no hotspots.
As of press time, the fire has impacted an estimated 125 acres.
This comes on the heels of the massive wildfires that broke out in Western and Central Nebraska and burned more than 820,000 acres. The fires have wreaked havoc with Nebraska’s agricultural industry, displacing more than 35,000 cows, leaving them with nowhere to graze and destroying miles and miles of fencing.
Hot, dry weather along with high winds have created ideal conditions for rapidly spreading wildfires, although rain is forecasted for later in the week.
A statewide burn ban that was going to expire March 28 has been extended by Governor Jim Pillen until April 10, 2026, by executive order number 26-08.
