Posted: Saturday, July 29, 2006 12:00 am
HARTVILLE (AP) - Winds whipped up a wildfire in Platte County, but because federal firefighting crews were busy with fires elsewhere, the battle against the new Wyoming fire was mostly a local and state effort, an official said Friday.
Assistant State Forester Ray Weidenhaft said the fire was so intense and moving so quickly that firefighters were unable to get an accurate reading on its size.
"Everything is moving so fast the acres change by the minute," Weidenhaft said.
The latest estimate was the fire had burned about 6,000 acres, a little more than 9 square miles, he said.
The fire was burning north of Hartville, a community of some 75 residents located in a wooded, hilly area about five miles north of Guernsey. The fire was burning on both sides of Wyoming Highway 270, a 35-mile stretch of which has been closed, Weidenhaft said.
Winds were pushing the fire away from Hartville, and part of it was heading toward an area burned out by a fire that occurred earlier this summer on the Wyoming National Guard's Camp Guernsey training area, Weidenhaft said.
The main concern is if winds shift and push the fire toward Hartville, which is only about 1.5 miles from the southern edge of the fire, he said.
The Platte County sheriff's office has advised resident of Hartville to voluntarily leave, Weidenhaft said.
However, forecasts called for the wind to continue pushing the fire north, he said.
Only a few Bureau of Land Management crews were available to help local and state firefighters, Weidenhaft said.
No expert federal firefighting resources were available because they were fully committed to large fires in other states, he said.
Two Wyoming Army National Guard helicopters with water buckets were being used to help fight the fire.
The fire was reported Thursday. How it started and when were not immediately known, but lightning is suspected, Weidenhaft said.
Elsewhere in Wyoming, a fire burning in the Shoshone National Forest about 30 miles west of Meeteetse was about 30 percent contained. The fire, which has been burning since June 19, has burned about 27,500 acres - much of it insect-killed trees. The main concern of firefighters was to keep the fire from burning onto private land.
And firefighters were battling other, smaller fires around the state.