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Rural Nebraska fire chief killed in crash on way to wildfire

By Associated Press
Published: April 8, 2022, 9:15am

EDISON, Neb. (AP) — A wildfire in southern Nebraska fueled by dry conditions and strong winds forced the evacuation of the small village of Edison and a rural fire chief was killed in a crash while he was responding to the blaze.

The Nebraska State Patrol called for a mandatory evacuation Thursday night of the Furnas County community of about 130 people about 187 miles (301 kilometers) southwest of Lincoln. That order was later extended to rural residents around Edison and near the small town of Stamford, across the county line in Harlan County. Several schools in the area canceled classes Friday.

Shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday, an SUV carrying emergency officials to the fire collided with a water tanker on state Highway 283 in Furnas County as smoke from the fire cut visibility to zero, the patrol said Friday. Elwood Volunteer Fire Chief Darren Krull, 54, who was a passenger in the SUV, died at the scene, the patrol said.

The SUV’s driver, 40-year-old Phelps County Emergency Manager Justin Norris, suffered life-threatening injuries in the crash, the patrol said, and was hospitalized in stable condition Friday morning. The 28-year-old driver of the tanker was not injured, the patrol said.

At least 27 emergency departments were actively fighting the blaze Thursday night, NTV reported. Gosper County Emergency Manager Roger Powell told KLKN of Lincoln that the fire was about 6 miles long (10 kilometers) and 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) wide by midafternoon Thursday, but had grown in the hours following amid high winds, with gusts over 50 mph (80 kph) at times.

Critical fire weather conditions were forecast for Friday from the central Plains to the northwestern Gulf Coast, including parts of Texas and Louisiana, the National Weather Service said. Much of Nebraska and Kansas could see wind gusts of up to 40 mph (64 kph) coupled with low humidity.

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