GILLETTE, Wyo. — After a busy week of firefighting across northern Wyoming, the Southwest Incident Management Team 5 held a meeting in Gillette on Tuesday evening to share fire information with the public.
The management team took over control of fires in Campbell County as well as the Remington Fire in Sheridan County and the House Draw Fire in Johnson County last week. Incident Meteorologist Bruno Rodriguez, who works in conjunction with management teams, explained to the crowd gathered at CAM-PLEX’s Energy Hall Tuesday evening the unique weather conditions that contributed to fires in the area.
Dry lightning strikes in the area followed by a “surge” of southerly winds overnight on Aug. 22 contributed heavily to the fire activity seen on that day, he said. Rainfall on Thursday helped matters, but with hot weather slated for the next few days, fire risks were not out of the question going forward.
While some weather markers like humidity or wind could be a concern on certain days, a combination of factors would be less likely. “As we look at the next seven days, there just isn’t a whole lot of alignment between those critical weather variables,” Rodriguez said.
A host of different speakers from the incident team took the stage that evening, as did Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, who spoke to ranchers in the crowd on a personal level. Gordon’s own ranch was heavily impacted by fire in 2008, and he and his administration are hard at work putting together a page of online resources for those impacted.
“I want you to know we are working very hard to make sure it’s a one-stop place that you can go to figure out what resources you need, and it’s going to take a little to stand it up … to inventory the losses that we have,” Gordon said. Accurately tallying losses would also aid in securing a national disaster declaration for the area. Additional resources such as hay and available pastureland were also being worked on, as was preparation for treating areas of rangeland grass regrowth in the coming year.
On top of those efforts, the management team has set up a phone line for private land owners who have had property damaged in the course of the fire suppression effort, such as downed fencing. The number, team leadership explained, would help the team create a map of those who were seeking repairs.
Those interested in repairs will have their information added to a field map with their location and what specifically needs repaired, Team Five Incident Commander Dave Gesser said. The maps will be color coded by what projects are in progress or still need addressing.
“That information will be passed along to the counties as well as the local agencies to continue that work, to be able to get that completed for folks,” Gesser said.
To contact the private land suppression phone number, click here. For more information from the Incident Management Team, click here. The full Tuesday meeting will also be shared by the county for those who were unable to attend.
