The Riley County Fire Department was called out to the K-177 bridge over the Kansas River at around 7:30 pm Saturday for a report of a fire.
Upon arriving crews found a pile of debris under the bridge ablaze and threatening the structure of the bridge. Because of the location of the fire crews had to spray water from the shore line using the water gun on the engine’s ladder.
Crews used around 8,000 gallons of water to extinguish the fire, and had to pull water from the river as the engine can only carry around 1,000 gallons, which doing so can damage the engine’s pump if the unfiltered water isn’t purged.
KMAN spoke with volunteer firefighter Dakota Finn with the Riley County Fire Department, and he presumes that the fire was caused by fireworks being discharged nearby, and believes that the fire had been burning for a short time before crews were called out.
Finn urges anyone shooting off fireworks or using anything that is flammable to do so safely, and should a fire start, call the fire department.
In addition to RCFD responding — Zeandale Station 15, and Station 16 out of Hunters Island responded.
A video of the fire can be found below. (Video courtesy; Dakota Finn – Riley County Fire Department)
