SUMNER COUNTY- Fire officials in Kansas are alerting residents that due to the fires across the state, smoke will be in the air.

“Do you smell or see smoke in the air? Yes you do, and so too, is everyone else,” Sumner County Emergency Management wrote on social media,

 

Thick smoke is rolling into the area from a very large fire in southern Kansas pic.twitter.com/0n29i0i3C7

— Blue Township Fire (@BTFD5) March 23, 2016

That fire started in Oklahoma on Monday, and has burned into Kansas, with well over 55,000 acres of very dry grassland has burned…and a lot of smoke has been carried across the state.

Please do not call 911 if you do not see flames…as fire departments are becoming overwhelmed with false calls from the smell of smoke, according to Sumner County officials.

Smoke from the wildfires has traveled hundreds of miles.

The National Weather Service says the smoke has been detected as far away as Springfield, Missouri, about 290 miles to the east, and in St. Louis, about 460 miles to the northeast of the fires.

Springfield meteorologist Mark Burchfield says the smell of smoke was “pretty strong” as he was leaving for work Thursday morning.

St. Louis meteorologist Mark Britt says the weather service posted on social media advising of the smoke.

The strong winds that are blowing the smoke also are complicating efforts to fight the fires that have consumed more than 600 square miles of largely rural land along the Kansas-Oklahoma border since Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.