Plenty of sunshine and unseasonably warm temperatures have most people glad that the last remnants of winter are gone.

As nice as the weather has been, though, firefighters around the county are hoping for some substantial rainfall to dampen the extremely dry ground and help prevent the kind of grass fires that broke out at several locations last week.

Gary Rushton, deputy chief of Elmwood Township Fire and Rescue Department, has been responding to a wide variety of emergency calls for the last 40 years or so through the department, but even he admitted that Wednesday, April 16, was unusual.

At one point during the afternoon and evening hours, five grass fires were ongoing in the southeast part of the county. “Three of those fires were in our township and we had everyone out and working,” Rushton said.

The first call came into the county dispatch center at 3:52 p.m. for a grass fire on S. Lake Leelanau Drive that brought a response from Elmwood Township. At 4:01 p.m., a grass fire was reported on E. Carter Road. The third Elmwood Township call came in at 4:43 p.m. for a fire on E. Fouch Road. The Centerville-Solon Township Fire Department responded to a small grass fire in a ditch along side Schomberg Road, near Holy Rosary Church. The fifth grass fire call came at 5:12 p.m. at a location on N. Warden’s Point Road in Leland Township.

With three grass fires going at once, Rushton said the Elmwood Department was at its limit.

“We had some horrific winds. The wind was blowing so hard the fire was jumping on us. As fast as he could get to spot, the embers from that spot were carried by the wind and would start a new fire a few feet from the first,” he said.

“It was just jumping so fast we couldn’t get out in front of it.”

Units from Elmwood, Suttons Bay-Bingham, Leland Township and from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Platte River office responded to the S. Lake Leelanau Drive fire. When the E. Carter and E. Fouch fires were doused, the Elmwood department was officially “maxed” out, meaning it had no more personnel or resources to send to any emergency scene.

County emergency management and 9-1-1 director Tom Skowronski and his staff of dispatchers set up “strike crews” at the Leelanau Township Fire and Rescue Department and at the Glen Lake Fire and Rescue Department. A strike crew involves five or six firefighters placed at a nearby fire station to respond to any new calls when a neighboring department is at its limits.

“Elmwood Township had three fires going at the same time and their resources were rapidly draining. We bump out the next nearest department. Since Leland was already at two different scenes as well, we contacted the Leelanau Township and Glen Lake fire departments and set up strike crews,” he said.

When the N. Wardens Point Road call came, the Leelanau Township department was called to the scene. Skowronski said Leelanau fire chief Hugh Cook Jr. responded with at least eight members and equipment to the scene and had it under control in a short time.

“It’s been a while since we had to have strike crews ready to go like that. It was a very busy afternoon and evening, but all the departments really stepped up and helped out,” he said.

Paul Simmer, fire officer supervisor for the DNR’s Traverse City management unit, said the S. Lake Leelanau Drive fire was about 6½ acres in size. “We use GPS to determine the size of a fire,” he said.

Simmer is in charge of DNR fire operations for a five county area that includes Leelanau. Several larger grass fires also ignited April 17 in Grand Traverse and Kalkaska counties. “It was a very busy day,” he said.

It was also a “Red Flag Warning” day. The National Weather Service issues the warning when dry and windy conditions combine to make for extremely dangerous fire conditions. During the warnings, no burn permits are issued and no outside burning is allowed.

Skowronski said at least three of the grass fires that occurred last Wednesday were caused by power lines blown down by high winds. While winds have moderated, conditions are still ripe for grass fires. Anyone who wants to do outdoor burning in northern Lower Michigan will need to get a permit from the DNR. Applications can be made online at www.michigan.gov/burnpermit or by calling 1-866-922-2876. In Leelanau Township, call 386-5138 Monday through Friday, and 386-5343 on weekends.

Water-filled helmets help douse fire.

Sometimes, it pays to use your head – or in this case, your helmet – when trying to put out a campfire.

Firefighters with the Centerville-Solon Fire and Rescue Department were dispatched to two separate burning complaints Monday afternoon, and in one case helped douse flames by carrying water to the scene in their helmets.

Chief Al Rosinski said Tuesday he responded to a grass fire call at a residence on E. Ridge Cliff Trail in Cleveland Township, where the property owner was burning trash. He said the man had the fire under control. But since the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has a burning ban in place due to the continued dry conditions, Rosinski required that the fire be extinguished.

Shortly after 6 p.m. Monday, firefighters from Centerville-Solon were called to the scene of an unattended camp fire on the shores of Schishler Lake in southern Kasson Township. The lake sits about a half-mile east of Bright Road, and is only accessible by foot. Rosinski said the 10 firefighters who responded to the scene had to walk in, and used their helmets to put out the fire.

“They dipped their helmets in the lake and dumped the water on the campfire,” he said.