Almost 100 firefighters from several federal, state and county fire agencies continued to battle the Deer Creek 2 fire burning in three northeastern Wyoming counties Wednesday, completing a containment line around 15% of the 5,295-acre blaze.
The fire ignited by a burning coal seam in western Campbell County on Monday afternoon has since spread into Johnson and Sheridan counties, according to Melanie Wilmer, emergency response coordinator assigned to the fire.
Moisture and cooler temperatures are aided firefighters’ efforts, even though the fire grew by more than 2,000 acres from Wednesday to Thursday.
The fire burning in grass, juniper and ponderosa pine in rugged, remote terrain. Precipitation from overnight showers helped mitigate the spread of flames, according to a post on the Dry Creek 2 Fire Facebook page, though muddy conditions posed new challenges in the area of the fire, most of which cannot be accessed by fire engines.
According to the post, efforts Thursday were to focus on monitoring the fire activity in two areas in an attempt to keep the fire contained within the present containment lines until the fire intensity is significantly reduced to the unburned side of the line.
