Roscommon County Crews Spend Hours Fighting Wildfire

A large fire in Roscommon County spread quite quickly.

Fire crews in Nester Township spent hours putting out a fire they believe started from hunters trying to make lunch.

They got the call around 1:30 for the out of control flames.

"Appears to have been started by some hunters, deer hunters," said Tim Croxen.

What started as a quick lunch break for those deer hunters on opening day rapidly spread into something beyond their control.

"The conservation officer found them and they stated to him they were trying to heat their lunch when the fire escaped from them. They tried to put it out weren’t able to then called 911," Croxen said.

Roscommon County fire crews quickly got together to contain the flames near Dunham Lake Road and Railroad Garden Road.

"We had a difficult time finding the fire due to the location the hunters being some out of state there was some extra time spent going that," Croxen said.

In the end they contained the fire to a little more than 12 acres.

"We were quite fortunate. There was little wind so the fire was spreading in a circular direction there wasn’t a wind driven fire so we were fortunate for that," Croxen said.

Even though the wind was on their side they still battled the fire’s location set back in dense woods.

"Some of the challenges we encountered was the thick timber when the aspen is re-generating like the timber can be quite thick and difficult to get through," said Croxen.

No one was injured, and crews will be back in the area.

"We will come back out with one of our large water units and UTVs and patrol perimeter of the fire and look for anything smoking or burning. We will keep coming out for two consecutive days or until we have a sizable amount of rain and then we will declare it out and be all done," Croxen said.