If You Live In Holden And Have A Field To Burn, Holden Firefighters Want To Help

The Holden Fire Department has a proposition for Holden landowners: They want to help folks light their fields on fire, for free.

This week, the Department posted this on the Holden Fire/Rescue Facebook Page, 

"Looking to get your fields burnt this spring? We are looking for fields to burn for training within the next couple weeks. Please give us a call at 2078436737."

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The practice of burning fields goes way back and offers benefits to both the landowners and to the firefighters.

According to Lt. Chris Luce, of the Holden Fire Department, the service of performing a controlled burn on a property allows firefighters the opportunity to get important hands-on experience with maneuvers and equipment they don't usually get to use on a daily basis.

For the property owner, controlled burns provided a number of different benefits. The burns help promote new growth and help keep the tick population down. The burns can also prevent wildfires by creating natural barriers to prevent fires from spreading or even igniting in the first place.

Lt. Luce says that typically, the Holden Fire Department can do up to 10 fields of an acre or two a year, although last year, due to Covid, they didn't do any.

He says there's a small window of time between the time the ground firms up each spring, and the green growth starts to come in. Conditions play an important part of a controlled burn, too. It can't be too dry or windy.

Lt. Luce says the Fire Department starts taking calls about going to help burn fields as early as February.

If you live in Holden and are interested in having the Holden Fire Department come to do a controlled burn on your property, Lt. Luce says the best thing to do is to call the Fire Station. The firefighter on duty will take down some basic information, and then someone from the department will come along to take a look at the property.

Lt. Luce says a typical burn, depending on the weather, can last a couple of hours, per field.

There is no charge for this service.