First Order Of Business -- A Shoutout To The Volunteer Rural Firemen Across North Dakota -- July 23, 2017

Suggested by a reader -- I was remiss not to bring this up sooner. I haven't been reporting on the severe drought in North Dakota, but it is very, very bad up there. Compounding the immense damage to the crops, the prairie fires are putting a huge toll on rural fire departments across the state. From The Bismarck Tribune:

At least 268 rural wildfires have been reported in North Dakota this year, raising concern about stress being placed on volunteer fire departments as drought conditions continue to exacerbate the fire risk.

State officials may consider the possibility of stipends for rural volunteer firefighters who are leaving their jobs to fight fires, sometimes responding to multiple incidents a day.

“We’re very concerned at the level of use that our volunteer departments are seeing, They’ve been outstanding so far, but having to respond to three, four and five a day is really tough.”

The North Dakota Department of Emergency Services recently asked fire districts to begin reporting local fires to help officials make decisions about deploying state resources.