BANNER'S WILDFIRE FIGHTERS

Rick Craig has a soft spot in his heart for Harrisburg and Banner County.

Craig was raised in Harrisburg and would have graduated from BCHS in 1994 if he hadn't moved his senior year to the eastern part of the state, but Banner County still holds a special spot, and he knows many of the area people.

"I love that town," he said.

Now living in Seward, Craig and his partners, Bob and Dez Viger, are owners and operators of Lite Em Up Custom Burning, Inc., which they started in 2012 with just one truck. They just completed their fifth year of their Federal Wildland Fire Contract with four trucks to dispatch.

Lite Em Up's Western Division's head, JT Evans, lives in Harrisburg. He is the head of half the United States from Grand Island to the West Coast and from Mexico to Canada.

Evans is a childhood friend of Craig's, and that is why Craig planned on moving his Gering-based shop to Harrisburg as a satellite point. They have plans to construct a building on land they purchased from Evans on Court Street. Craig said he wanted to "give back to the community" by building his shop and then operating out of Harrisburg.

With a total of 24 employees spread from Banner County, Gering and eastern Nebraska to Wyoming, South Dakota and Colorado, Lite Em Up will burn over 3,000 acres for the Nebraska Rain Water Basin, Fish and Wildlife, Pheasants Forever, wetlands, private CRP lands and UNL.

But in addition to burning, they also contract with the federal government to fight federal fires and WDS (Wildfire Defense Systems) doing Structure Protection during the fire season.

Last year, Lite Em Up "made two historical fires," according to Craig. They worked Colorado's Cameron Peak Fire and California's August Complex Fire, the largest fires in history. Their last truck came home in December of 2020 after fighting fires in Colorado.

The truck Evans operates is a Type 3 truck named "Clifford." This truck is dispatched to mountainous areas and went to Oregon, California, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming last season. Clifford and his crew are ranked an impressive No. 1 from the Casper, Wyoming dispatch area.

Federal firefighters must acquire an Incident Qualification Car (red card) which is really Wildfire Fighter 101 class. In that class they learn about wind direction, weather, fire behavior and fire language. They are required to take a physical test and know how to deploy a fire shelter.

Lite Em Up's plans to erect the 40 by 80 foot building in Harrisburg has run into a roadblock.

The water, electricity and concrete is ready and the building should arrive soon, but Craig was notified that the building extended 23 feet onto the 100 foot public right away on Court Street.

According to Evans, they removed corrals, dug footings and made preparations for the building, including twice contacting the courthouse for information about setbacks. They received a "cease and desist" order from the county. According to Evans, Court Street extends only two blocks and he now knows that it is the only street in Harrisburg that has 100-foot public right away.

Banner County officials were not immediately available for comment.