Morning briefings for firefighters about to go out on the fireline usually involve half-awake men and women cradling cups of coffee standing around a truck or a hastily-erected plywood bulletin board onto which a map has been taped, as the fire overhead tells them what they will be doing that day. But if the Incident Command Post is located at a county fairgrounds, more elaborate accommodations may be available, such as the grandstand in the photo above.
The Oil Creek fire received a small amount of rain Thursday night, but enough to qualify as a “wetting rain”, which should slow down the spread of the fire for a little while. A weather station in Newcastle about three miles away measured 0.02″. Most of the vigorous thunderstorms that prompted flash flood warnings for the White Draw fire area bypassed the Oil Creek Fire to the south.
The fire has grown to about 61,000 acres and is being fought by 719 personnel, 5 helicopters, 14 dozers, 6 water tenders, and 61 assorted wildland and structural engines.
InciWeb has more details about evacuations, which are being re-evaluated today.
I have been following the Arapaho fire near Wheatland Wyoming and my concern is that local ranchers were not allowed to put the fire out in the early morning that the fire started. I have been told that there was a tanker on William Sturgeon ranch , but because of the fire being in the Medicine bow National forest he was not allowed to participate because he didn’t have the red card. When a fire just gets started it is my contention that area ranchers should all be certified to put the fire out even if it takes a few hours of class room training. I am not talking about a full blown inferno . I have also been told the the BLM has many trucks that are equipped to put out fires but they are declared as being surplus, or some thing, after one year. This fire went from a small fire to 95000 acres creating massive destruction to all living things, structures, church camps and some residences.