Firefighters Called Twice To Controlled Burn North Of Royal

A con​trolled burn along the Antelope and Knox county lines on Wednesday led to back-to-back days of calling in the Orchard and Royal fire departments for assistance.

Ryan Crumly of Page said his parents, Ron and Jeanne Crumly, annually burn cedar trees and grass off of one pasture each year. This year, the pasture located about 7 miles north of Royal and 1 mile west - near 870th Rd and 518th Ave - was set to burn about 200 acres.
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Crumly said they started at the road and worked their way south. With several people assisting, everything was going as planned until the fire started going further east and moved onto land owned by Norma Morrill. 

"We fought it for 15 minutes, and then we called the fire department," Crumly said. 

Firefighters from Orchard and Royal responded around 3:30 p.m. Local residents and Central Valley Ag also assisted. Crumly said the fire was under control within about 20-30 minutes.

About 60-80 acres burned that was not planned, located to the north of the planned area. The burned area looks larger than that because of the 200 acres that was planned to be burned. 

Crumly said the area was checked often Wednesday night and regularly on Thursday; however, the wind caused a couple of hot spots in the trees to flare up just after noon Thursday that led to the fire department's returning again.

With the wind expected to blow up to 20 mph out of the south-southeast overnight, Crumly said the area will continue to be heavily monitored Thursday night and Friday morning. Rain is possibly Saturday morning through Wednesday.