Equipment malfunction touches off grass fire, near Beatrice

BEATRICE – A clutch getting hot on a shredder that was being used on a CRP field, touched off a blaze that burned about 25-to-30 acres of short grass, Monday night.

Beatrice Rural Fire Chief Matt Langley says firefighters were sent to the field fire northeast of Beatrice, just after seven p.m.

The fire location was just north of the intersection of South 36^th and East Hoyt Road…or about one-and-a-half miles north of U.S. Highway 136.

Langley says the fire scorched the short grass and presented a difficulty in getting fire trucks to the scene, because of muddy conditions produced by recent rainfall.

The farmer using the shredder was able to unhook from it and move his tractor away, to keep it from getting damaged.  The fire was out just before 8:30 p.m., and fire personnel left the scene minutes later.