VIDEO: Dry Windy Conditions Aid Field Fire North of Altamont

Photo by Steffen Harris

The dry and windy conditions being experienced Wednesday resulted in a field fire north and west of Altamont.

There were reports that a combine caught fire and that was the cause of the fire. 200th Street and 300th Street were closed to traffic north out of Altamont due to smoke across the roadways. Crews also restricted access to Moccasin Road and other roads in that area due to the lack of visibility. Those roadways are now all open.

Thanks to Carolyn Hollar for the photo of the extent of the fire

Additional photos and videos are available on our Facebook page

There was also a call to a field fire in the area near Shumway. That fire resulted in the Effingham Water Authority closing Park Avenue along the south side of Lake Sara from the dam to the area of the Community Building and on west to the intersection with 1400th Street. Water Authority Superintendent Mike Dirks said the area south of Park Avenue was also burning. The acreage north of Park Avenue is part of the Post Oak Flats conservation area and is burned periodically to maintain the acreage. Dirks said this fire was not part of that project. Park Avenue and other roads in that area were open again as of about 5:30pm.

Things were beginning to calm down after 4pm, but then another field fire was reported, this one in the Watson area. That fire at 1600th Street and 400th Avenue, was due to another combine fire. That fire is now under control.

By 7pm, there were scattered hot spots, but no other problems at any of today's fire scenes.

Thanks to Kimberly Ohnesorge for the video

Smoke from the fires was heavy enough that it was appearing on GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) images utilized by the National Weather Service in Lincoln.

Image from #GOES satellite channel 7 shows the fire in our previous tweet south of Beecher City, shown by the black squares. Loop shows it appearing around 1:15 or so. It also appears a smaller file is south of Shumway. #ILwx pic.twitter.com/c2FiQvOsi3

— NWS Lincoln IL (@NWSLincolnIL) October 14, 2020