(Fremont County, WY) – The Weiser Knoll Fire, reported yesterday, August 9, has grown to an estimated 9,800 acres as of Monday morning, August 10, and is 0% contained, according to Fremont County Fire Protection District Chief Ron Wempen, who updated County 10 this morning after a fire command meeting. The Level 3 “Go” evacuation order remains in place for the same areas it was issued for yesterday, Chief Wempen and Milan Vinich from the Fremont County Emergency Management Agency both confirmed with County 10, with no new areas ordered to evacuate at this time.
The fire was caused by a mechanical failure on a trailer wheel that was being towed, Chief Wempen shared, which led to three fires starting a short distance apart on the east side of Johnnie Lee’s Corner at around 2:30 PM.
“With the weather conditions yesterday being Red Flag, the fire spread rapidly,” Chief Wempen explained. “They were called in almost immediately. But they definitely outpaced anything the fire department could do to try to pick it up.”
Weather conditions pushed the fire “a lot of different directions… as the wind shifted several times up here last night,” Chief Wempen went on to add, leading to the overnight growth. He said that today’s aerial resources will help better understand precise fire locations, but it’s currently known that the fire stretches from Highway 28 all the way to the Twin Creek gravel road going up in Twin Creek itself.
Chief Wempen said that only minor injuries have been reported at this time and that no residential structures have been lost.
“We had a storage container that was damaged last night, and an old barn was up one of the draws that we couldn’t get access to with the fire behavior, that have been destroyed,” Chief Wempen shared. “Other than that, no homes or anything have been even damaged to this point. I guess we’ll call that the success of the day.”
In terms of yesterday’s response, Chief Wempen said that they had “well over 22 engines” out of Fremont County, Lander, Hudson, and Jeffrey City engaged on the fire, including Fremont County fire battalions 1, 4, 5, 12, 3, 9 and 10, as well as BLM and U.S. Forest Service and BIA engines (U.S. Wildland Fire Service).
“We had quite a bit of help along with aircraft and just had absolute trouble all afternoon trying to get any kind of containment on this,” Chief Wemen added.
As of this morning, Chief Wempen says that even though crews have “built some line” around the fire, they are not considering any of the fire contained.
“We actually had some fire line last night we had worked on,” Chief Wempen explained. “We got hit by a 45 to 50 mile an hour wind gust and it blew that fire line back out and we lost that line.”
The fire has been turned over to the BLM today, and a type three incident management team has been ordered. Some of these crews are in place now, and more are coming.
“More crews and engines are coming along with some more heavy equipment,” Chief Wempen continued in his update. “We do have one dozer currently here. Some more have been ordered. We currently are operating one type one helicopter in here along with an air attack platform to help guide any retardant aircraft that comes in and also to coordinate work with that helicopter. One more type one helicopter has been ordered. It’ll be coming out of Casper to Riverton and then from Riverton on over here later in the morning.”
Chief Wempen says there are currently between 60 and 70 people engaged on the fire this morning, with additional crews expected to arrive throughout the day.
Some power lines have been impacted in the area as well.
“The high voltage line through here, the main feed, has not been impacted, but we do have some others that have,” Chief Wempen explained. “There have been poles destroyed. The lines are on the ground. They’ve been de-energized. Some of that area is going to be without power for a while. I don’t have an estimate on that. It’s going to depend on how long it takes the power company to be able to get access in and do the repairs.”
(Refer to Rocky Mountain Power and the outage map for any questions about outages.)
As stated above, the evacuation order issued yesterday remains unchanged, but Chief Wempen advised that “realistically” the Rawlins Junction area on WY 287 towards the Beaver Rim might receive a Level 2 “Set” order at some point today, depending on fire activity, but that decision will be left up to the Fremont County Emergency Management Agency.
Chief Wempen wanted to remind motorists traveling on WY 28 or US 287 from the Rawlins Junction toward Jeffrey City to “be vigilant” for fire apparatus and traffic on the road. “Reduce speeds and just pay attention to the vehicles in the area.”
Chief Wempen also wanted to reiterate that this fire was caused by a bearing failure on a trailer wheel, and that dragging chains and flat tires can easily lead to fires in these dry grass conditions.
“Our grasses are dry, they’re cured out, they’re brown,” Chief Wempen explained. “We’re in Red flag conditions again the next two days, so any little thing that creates any kind of a heat source or little spark obviously is going to cause a catastrophic fire like this. Be extra cautious with the activities everybody’s doing outdoors.”
County 10 will continue to provide updates on the fire as they become available.