Residents along the east front of the Bighorn Mountains scrambled to escape the 32,000-acre Elk Fire that has burned six outbuildings, injured one firefighter and closed Highway 14 between Dayton and Burgess Junction.
The fire consumed barns, outhouses and other “non-primary residential buildings,” Sheridan emergency officials reported Wednesday. The firefighter’s injuries are not life-threatening, officials say.
Pushed by red-flag winds, the fire, discovered Friday, has raced through a 15-by-6-mile swath of forested mountains and hills since lightning sparked it on the Bighorn National Forest. It has spilled over to the range’s eastern face and into some ranches and subdivisions east of Dayton, population about 900.
Sheridan County emergency officials have issued evacuation notices to residents in several areas as 200 firefighters swarm to protect area homes and buildings.
“It’s rough,” said Rick Clark, who lives along the mountains about 5 miles west of Dayton. “I’ve been up the last two nights getting ready to get out of here.
“It just seems to be a perpetual fire; every time the wind shifts it goes somewhere else, then that area ends up being evacuated,” he said. “It’s a whiplash kind of deal — one minute it looks fine, the next minute you’re scrambling, then it’s moved the other direction.”
Along the Tongue River Canyon southwest of Dayton, Cathy Wallace’s husband Mark spent Tuesday night at the couple’s home protecting the property, which has since been evacuated.
“They stayed at the house all night and put out spot fires,” she said from a relative’s home in nearby Ranchester, where the couple has evacuated to. “I think the firefighters saved everything on our road, for now.”
Twilight Zone
“Holy cow, it’s dry,” Clark said in a telephone interview. “Unless you’re irrigating all the time, there’s nothing green around here.”
He’s got a cargo trailer loaded with “a jillion” instruments, sound systems and recording equipment from earlier years as a musician. He’s ready to go.
Combined with the smoke and charred hillsides, “everything looks like something out of the Twilight Zone,” Clark said.
“What I hear is people are seeing a lot of bears coming down.”
Rick Clark
Toward the Tongue River Canyon and the Wallace place, “It’s dark smoke,” he said. “It’s burning pretty good,” although aerial retardant and water drops appear to have slowed the blaze’s advance there.
A dozen bull elk were hanging out near Clark’s place. “What I hear is people are seeing a lot of bears coming down,” he said.
Federal firefighters who operate as an incident management team are arriving to oversee the fight and coordinate crews. Officials gathered the public Wednesday evening in Ranchester to brief the community on the situation.
The Bighorn National Forest has closed part of the federal reserve. Firefighters expect an increase in fire activity due to warming weather, according to an update posted Wednesday afternoon.
On Togwotee Pass
Far to the west on Togwotee Pass between Dubois and Moran, another crew of 214 firefighters is protecting buildings from the Pack Trail Fire, which had grown to 18,774 acres as of Wednesday evening.
The Bridger-Teton National Forest and Shoshone National Forest have closed parts of those hills to keep people safe. Fremont County Emergency officials expanded their evacuation notices, posting additional areas where residents should be ready to leave on the agency’s Facebook page.
The Pack Trail Fire is just a short distance south of the Fish Creek Fire that previously closed Highway 26/287 over Togwotee Pass and caused residents to evacuate. Firefighters have contained 87% of the perimeter of that 25,325-acre blaze, which ignited Sept. 16.
Crews had not constructed containment lines around either the Pack Trail or Elk fires, according to updates Wednesday.
…”and into some ranches and subdivisions east of Dayton…”
The fire perimeter map at inciweb shows the fire WEST of Dayton.
As a Wyoming Native with a lot of family and friends within Sheridan County as well as the surrounding areas. My heart hurts!
May we all remain…
#WyomingStrong
The fire the forest svc set as a back fire, is the one that caused the fire spread fast, and it was not lightning as told by forest svc people.
The forest service would never lie to cover up their own negligence….would they??