FINALLY! Wyoming Fires Are Mostly Contained

When it comes to fighting fires, containment is everything.

Firefighters will cut lines in the land and drop fire retardant to try and deny fuel to the moving blaze.

But winds cause embers to launch high into the air and land a mile or more away, at times.

After a long and hard-fought fire season, Wyoming's hot spots are all, mostly, contained.

When dealing with fires this big the best we can do is contain, so it can't spread, and let it burn out.

But we are not out of danger yet.

Containment is what firefighters are after, but that does not mean that those fires are out.

There are many hotspots out there.

Not having too many windy days has been helpful.

This is a dry time of year, so we won't get much help in the form of rain or show, for a while.

The Fish Creek Fire that closed Togwotee Pass a couple of times is still burning, but mostly contained. That's big timber up there, which is a hard fire to kill.

HOUSE DRAW INCIDENT

Type: WF - Wildfire
Area Acres Burned: 174,547
Percent Contained: 100%

The House Draw Fire is between Kaycee and Buffalo. There are a lot of ranchers hurting out that way.

There are several fires around Gillette. All are 95% to 97% contained.

Every fire along the Wyoming-Montana line is 100% contained.

There is more burning out there and all are mostly under control.

Now if Mother Nature will just cooperate, and keep those winds down, these fires will finally run out of fuel and we can be done with this.

A lot has been learned about how to fight fires over the past few decades.

Modern technology has come a long way.

Still, fighting a wildfire is not easy.

Mother nature does not cooperate.

Here are the strategies that firefighters use in places like Wyoming.

CONTAIN!

There is no use in trying to put out what is currently burning. That takes a lot more resources than you might imagine. Instead, they will drop a flame retardant ahead of the fire and, if able, use heavy equipment to scrape away anything burnable.

Firefighters anticipate where the fire might spread. That orange stuff does not extinguish fires, but it does make it harder for trees and leaves to combust.

The color is orange so they can see where they dropped it, allowing them to line up the next pass from the air.

GET AHEAD & KEEP IT FROM SPREADING

Everything currently burning is allowed to burn out. A line of firefighters will wait on the other side of the lines they have cut, looking for any embers trying to jump their line. They spray, drop water, shovel, and stop out those embers.

Water drops will be used on the new fires the old one is trying to start, on the other side of the line.

Trucks will drive by, when able, spraying water on anything they see that's trying to get started.

Men with shovels and other tools will take care of the smaller embers that land and try to get a foothold.

Backfires help.

New technology even includes drones dropping little balls that will create a backfire in the wilderness.

This drone idea allows firefighters to move to areas faster than a person could ever hope to travel on foot. They can also drop these firefighting eggs where it is hard for people to get to.

Little drones also save a lot of money over using helicopters.

With out-of-control fires raging out of control in eastern Wyoming, it's a good thing that the Casper/Natrona County airport had just finished upgrading its air firefighting facilities.

New planes. More planes. Bigger planes.

MUCH BIGGER PLANES, and just in time.

Nobody likes a summer fire, but it does keep the airport busy with interesting water bombers coming and going.

The airport has been posting photos and videos of these fantastic planes on its Facebook page.

For several years the two firefighting planes would arrive for fire season and park in a temporary area on the east corner of the airport.

They would run a long hose from a fire hydrant to a holding tank to refill the planes for another fire run.

Yes, the big boys have found a new home in central Wyoming.

While stationed in Casper, these serious firefighting machines have a long range and can fight across several states.

Before the new facilities, built at the fire season's end, the firefighters would pack up and go home.

Now, for some of these planes, Casper is home.

They have a permanent base at the airport, and they no longer need to run a long hose to a fire hydrant.

After six years of planning, designing, and construction the Airport grounds are now the home base for a new BLM Single Engine Air Tankers (SEAT) and Large Air Tankers (LAT) Base.

HOLD ON- what is a SEAT and LAT base?

It's a base that loads firefighting aircraft with anything they need, from water to chemicals, to fight fires. That's the most simple, nontechnical explanation there is.

Below is the new cover photo for the Casper/Natrona County Airport.

The facility was constructed in Collaboration with BLM, Wyoming State Forestry Division, and U.S. Forest Service.

It is the only base in the country jointly built by the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service.

Below is an exciting video of a firefighting plane from Casper in action.

Casper is also the exclusive home to two SEAT planes, contracted by the Wyoming State Forestry Division.

The modernized base now has the ability to load two planes (SEAT and/or LAT) at the same time with a maximum daily output of 80,000–90,000 gallons of mixed retardant compared to the previous 15,000-gallon output.

Future plans include the construction of a new heli-base adjacent to the SEAT/LAT base for the State Forestry Division.