Smoke from grass fires is forcing closures of a couple of short stretches of Interstate 70 in central Kansas.
Authorities say a one-mile length of the freeway in central Kansas’ Lincoln County was shut down Monday afternoon in both directions, as well as a short section of I-70 in nearby Ellsworth County. The Kansas Highway Patrol says traffic was being rerouted.
A section of U.S. 54 in south-central Kansas also was closed Monday because of smoke linked to a fire near a cotton gin and surrounding grassland.
Pratt County’s emergency services chief, Mark McManaman, says crews have managed to contain the blaze Monday to what he calls “a huge pile” of cotton burrs near the gin, which has escaped structural damage.