A hillside smolders near Wheatland, spewing enough smoke to obscure the late-summer sunshine and darken the skies. The Britania Mountain Fire had burned approximately 24,105 acres of mostly Platte and Albany county property as of 7 a.m. Aug. 30. (Natrona County Fire District)

The 2018 fire season has seen the largest wildfire in California history, the most hectares ever burned in British Columbia and countless devastating conflagrations across the West, but Wyoming has remained safely clear of the headlines — until now.

Support WyoFile during our fall membership drive

As of Thursday morning Aug. 30 the Britania Mountain Fire near Wheatland had burned 24,105 acres of Medicine Bow National Forest, Albany County land, Platte County land, Bureau of Land Management and private property, according to Brant Porter, public information officer for Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team Black. The blaze was sparked by lightning on Aug. 6 he said, and is being fought by a 368-person response team — including multiple 20-person hand crews, engine crews, four helicopters, seven single-engine, fixed-wing air tankers and an air-attack plane. The Natrona County Fire District, which posted this picture to its Facebook page, is one of the many local, state and federal agencies and private contractors to send personnel and equipment to the scene.

Wildfire Today reports that the fire has destroyed 16 structures. The blaze is about 33 percent contained, Porter said.

Matthew Copeland is the chief executive & editor of WyoFile. Contact him at matthew@wyofile.com or (307) 287-2839. Follow Matt on Twitter at @WyoCope

Leave a comment

Want to join the discussion? Fantastic, here are the ground rules: * Provide your full name — no pseudonyms. WyoFile stands behind everything we publish and expects commenters to do the same. * No personal attacks, profanity, discriminatory language or threats. Keep it clean, civil and on topic. *WyoFile does not fact check every comment but, when noticed, submissions containing clear misinformation, demonstrably false statements of fact or links to sites trafficking in such will not be posted. *Individual commenters are limited to three comments per story, including replies.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *