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RURAL AMIRET - When the wind blows, the fire could grow.

Firefighters from Marshall, Milroy, Tracy, Balaton and Garvin fought a fire and the wind Wednesday morning on a Lyon County farm site owned by Greg Vroman on 220th Ave.

"It was terrible," Marshall Fire Chief Marc Klaith said of the wind.

The fire was reported at 9:03 a.m., the Lyon County Sheriff's Department said.

The south/southwest wind during the fire was at 43 mph at 9 a.m., 47 mph at 10 a.m. and 38 mph at 11 a.m., the National Weather Service Web site said.

Klaith said the fire got "hung up in the grove" and they were able to contain it, but with the wind there is always a worry "because the wind could change directions on you."

Marshall asked for mutual aid because of the wind and because the department wanted to make sure there was plenty of water.

"That's why you have all those departments out there to help," Klaith said.

Despite the wind, the departments were able to stop the fire in about two hours, Klaith said.

Fire damaged a machine shed and a grove on the abandoned farm site. There is livestock on the site. The fire appears to have started from a burn pile of trees and branches, Klaith said.

"It's been over a week since there was a fire," Vroman said of the burn pile of trees and branches.

Klaith and Vroman said the sustained high winds from Tuesday night and Wednesday morning apparently fueled a branch or log inside the pile and started the fire.

"My sister-in-law as driving by...," Vroman said of how the fire was spotted. "She asked me if I had started a fire and I came out to take a look."

"I'm sure the wind kindled it up and gave it a little air," Klaith said.

The fire had spread to the machine shed and then to the grove.

"This is not fun," Tracy firefighter Dale Johnson Jr. said as he took a break from spraying foam on the pile of burning branches.

"We soaked it with foam because the foam soaks in - water will evaporate, foam won't," Johnson said. "We'll get her out."

Milroy firefighter Justin Duscher said the wind made "a little tough" to control equipment.

"We've got enough pressure to get it there," Duscher said of spraying foam.

The wind also kicked up dirt, an additional irritant.

"There (was) a lot of dirt flying around," Duscher said.

"It was a dust storm," Klaith said.