It was hard to miss the giant plume of smoke billowing skyward as I drove from Mandan to Bismarck last night. A quick peek from the river’s edge revealed a lot of activity along the sandbar just north of the Expressway Bridge. I could see rural fire, police, and city fire vehicles lining the access road along the sandbar…to me, this indicated that it was likely NOT a controlled burn. From the news report I caught last night, it was not.

One thing you may not know about the Bismarck Fire Department and Bismarck Forestry Department is that they are actually pretty well equipped to deal with such a threat. They realized the fire danger that exists in areas such as this one (or the woodlands south of the city) and have built fire trails in these areas. The fire trails allow them quick access to places that normally would be a nightmare to reach, and these trails allow them to react quickly to fires that otherwise might burn out of control.

Just such a situation happened south of town a few years back in a very remote are and, thanks to the fire trail, the fire crews were able to react and contain the fire just prior to a nasty wind shift. That wind shift would have driven the fire right into the Tatley Meadows trailer park and brought disaster with it.

Kudos to our local responders! If this had spread under the Expressway Bridge, who knows what kind of complications could have resulted. From what I saw, the crew was able to contain this blaze very quickly.