Gov. Mark Gordon told hundreds of worried Dayton-area residents Wednesday evening that Wyoming’s firefighting resources, including the National Guard, are available to federal managers of the 50,000-acre Elk Fire.
Gordon traveled to Ranchester to address the crowd as the six-day old fire continued to expand on the Bighorn National Forest and private land, threatening communities in western Sheridan County. Residents have evacuated several rural ranch areas, Highway 14 between Dayton and Burgess Junction is closed, parts of the National Forest are off limits, and Tongue River area schools shuttered and canceled weekend activities.
In pledging Wyoming’s support, Gordon acknowledged the rugged country, limited state firefighting resources, complex job involving aerial suppression and tiresome fire season.
“This has been a hell of a year,” he said, “exhausting for our firefighters.” Wyoming has spent its two-year firefighting budget in one year, he said; the state forester reported that almost 700 wildfires have burned 710,000 acres this summer.
“I know how desperate it can seem at times.”
Gov. Mark Gordon
“My daughter used to work on the forest here for the firefighting team, so I know how this goes and I know how desperate it can seem at times,” Gordon said.
“If [federal incident commander] Casey [Cheesbrough] needs National Guard resources, he can call,” Gordon said. “They can have everything we’ve got.”
Wyoming National Guard has limited firefighting resources, Gordon said, and firefighting aircraft have to be carefully coordinated.
“Our guard is pretty deployed already,” he said. Aircraft flights, “that’s got to be a really well planned operation.”
Dozer success, lighter fuels
Because it is late in the season, helicopters, air tankers and other equipment are more readily available, Mike Reed, the federal operations section chief for the Elk Fire said in a video briefing posted Thursday. As the fire moved down the eastern front of the Bighorn Mountains and onto flatter, private land, it has become easier to control because of lighter fuels there, he said.
Further, bulldozer lines scrapped across the base of the hills near Dayton have held the fire back, Reed said.
Nevertheless, firefighters agree the community is in for more stress. “We are expecting a pretty significant wind event Friday and into the weekend,” Reed said.
The scale of the Elk Fire is unprecedented on the Bighorn, forest Supervisor Andrew Johnson told the Ranchester gathering Wednesday evening.
Temperatures, dryness, relative humidity “don’t feel like October,” he said. “And these winds have not helped us.”
Firefighters from Torres Contracting of Salem, Oregon, line up for a meal of turkey while working on the Pack Trail and Fish Creek fires outside Dubois (Bridger-Teton National Forest)
Johnson banned campfires in the Bighorn after two escaped on Wednesday.
“Both of those were squashed where they were,” he said. “But … we can’t have that as a distraction while we are fighting this [Elk] fire.”
Schools in the Tongue River area of western Sheridan County shuttered. Sheridan County School District 1 Superintendent Jeff Jones also canceled weekend events, but kept some facilities open to feed kids who might need a meal.
“To be frank, it doesn’t make sense to be playing a ballgame out of town while your family’s home is in jeopardy of burning down,” Jones said in a statement published by Sheridan Media.
Blazes like the Elk Fire blossomed so quickly it was challenging. Firefighters targeted the Elk Fire with aerial water drops the afternoon they discovered it, but were unable to put it out.
It took some time to assemble the crew of 200 federal and local firefighters that’s on the fire now. State Forester Kelly Norris told top elected officials Thursday that Wyoming may need to fund its own strike team.
“I’ll be really clear and pretty frank,” she said, “we got caught this summer.” Despite “amazing” county firefighters, many of whom are volunteers, they “can’t go more than 30 hours straight on a fire,” she said.
“When we don’t have staff, we don’t have the resources, it was left to a lot of landowners to try and save their places, and I think that was really difficult,” Norris said at a meeting of the State Board of Land Commissioners.
She recommended building a strike team of engines and a couple of hand crews, plus more aircraft. “Yes, it’s a little bit of an investment in the front end, but it would have saved us millions on the back end,” she said.
Almost quiet on the western front
In Western Wyoming, the Fish Creek and Pack Trail fires caused less trouble Wednesday. Both are burning relatively close to one another just south of Togwotee Pass on the Bridger-Teton National Forest and Shoshone National Forest between Dubois and Moran.
Together the fires cover 44,145 acres. Crews have containment around 95% of the Fish Creek Fire, 0% of the Pack Trail blaze.
Smoke from the Pack Trail and Fish Creek fires are seen from Togwotee Pass on Sept. 29, 2024. (Anna Knaeble)
Altogether 355 firefighters are stationed at the conflagrations, seeking to contain and ultimately suppress them.
“Despite red flag conditions yesterday, firefighters were able to keep fire growth minimal, with only an additional 290 acres on Fish Creek and 915 acres on Pack Trail,” the Bridger-Teton reported Thursday.
Officials have scheduled a public meeting for 6 p.m. Friday at the National Museum of Military Vehicles, near Dubois to inform residents of ongoing efforts.
Dustin Bleizeffer contributed reporting.
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