Careful! The fluff blowing around your property is extremely flammable.

Nobody knows that better than Kleefeld resident Jodi Gatten whose yard lit up after one of the cottonwood seeds caught fire Thursday evening. 

“The fluff burns like gas,” exclaims Gatten who watched her yard ignite. “It was very scary!”

Gatten’s property was one of two grass fires the Kleefeld Fire Department attended on Thursday, one at 9:30 AM and the other at 9:20 PM. Both blazes were largely fueled by the seeds scattered across the ground.

“These days there is a lot of this white fluff flying around our neighborhoods,” comments Hanover Fire Chief Paul Wiebe, "and when it accumulates in large amounts it is actually flammable.”

Wiebe says neither fire was particularly difficult to battle and both were extinguished within an hour. Still, he asks residents to be especially cautious of the seeds which are easily ignited and can cause fire to spread quickly.