By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post

Three grass fires are under investigation Sunday morning.

According to Ellis County Rural Fire Director Dick Klaus, the fires were reported at approximately 7:30 Saturday evening.

The three fires were “north of the interstate (I-70), one east of 183 and two west,” he said.

Klaus said every unit from Ellis County worked to put the fires out.

Trego County fire crews and an oil tanker from Ellis County Public Works provided help in extinguishing the fires as well, he said.

Klaus was headed to check the scenes Sunday morning in order to evaluate the damage and acres burned.

The state fire marshal’s office and the Ellis County Sheriff’s Department already is investigating 15 separate fires that have occurred outside of Hays in the last two weeks.

Rural firefighters also were called to two other fires earlier Saturday evening, one near West 200th and Golf Course Road and another south of Hays.

Klaus said both of those fires appeared to have been caused by “carelessness,” with one started by the dumping of burnt trash with hot embers still in it, the other a controlled burn that quickly became out of control due to high winds.