NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say a fire that started in a piece of farm equipment was pushed by wind and soon blackened several hundred acres of grassland southwest of North Platte. Firefighters were dispatched about 3:15 p.m. Monday to a baler fire about a dozen miles from the city. Wind pushed the fire northward as flames fed on the dry vegetation. By the time firefighters from six departments had the blaze under control around 6 p.m., an area estimated at three to four miles long and a half mile wide had been blackened and an abandoned homestead had been destroyed. No injuries were reported.