Evacuation orders for a 30%-contained wildfire that threatened Hartville, Wyoming, and surrounding communities Friday evening may be lifted later Saturday, the Wyoming State Forestry Division reports.
The evacuation was prompted by a quick-moving storm cell that traveled in a southwesterly direction Friday afternoon at around 5 p.m., said Tyson Finnicum, a spokesman with the Wyoming Type 3 Team.
Such a team is an emergency classification level used by fire tracking agency National Interagency Fire Center and is made up of a small group of local, state and federal officials needed to help in the management of combating a wildfire.
Simultaneously, the fire jumped across Waylon Canyon to the west, putting pressure on the need for the evacuation as a safety precaution, he said.
“We made the decision for the evacuations at 4:38 p.m.,” Finnicum said.
The evacuation was ordered for Hartville and nearby Whalen Canyon, and notifications were sent to about 150 recipients via text and shared on a variety of cooperating agency social media accounts as well as by local organizations.
It was the second evacuation for those areas in just a few days.
Gaining Ground
Meanwhile, the fire stuck to the north of U.S. Highway 26 in the Haystacks area of eastern Wyoming has been 30% contained, a noteworthy update Saturday as the so-called Pleasant Valley Fire was stilled listed as not contained as of late Friday.
On Saturday morning, Finnicum said the fire is listed as under investigation.
The update issued Saturday indicates that about 26,000 acres have now burned — up 1,000 acres or so, he said.
“The evacuation is still in place for Hartville,” he said Saturday. “At this time, we cannot say when it will be lifted."
The Pleasant Valley Fire combined with the Haystack Fire overnight Tuesday and Wednesday, creating the large burn area clearly visible to the north of U.S. 26 that links the towns of Guernsey and Fort Laramie to the east.
Along with thousands of acres of grass and forests, the fire also burned the family homestead of congresswoman Harriet Hageman, who grew up in the area.
Finnicum said that a lightning strike in the Haymarket Range on July 28 caused the Goshen County fire. The Pleasant Valley Fire, which is the official name of the combined fire, began Tuesday.
Urgent Notice
As explained by Finnicum, a shift in the wind Friday prompted an urgent notice from Platte County emergency officials for residents in the tiny towns of Hartville and Sunrise (located a mile to the east of Hartville) and nearby Whalen Canyon Road to evacuate, their second in less than a week.
On Friday, about 10 adults, seven children and a dog from the Hartville area communities were evacuated to Camp Guernsey Joint Training Center just off U.S Highway 26 to stay at one of their air-conditioned barracks on the military base.
The Red Cross from Cheyenne set up a volunteer center to help coordinate the arrival of evacuees.
“We are providing a safe environment for them,” said Silvia Aguirre-Peppers, the disaster program manager for the American Red Cross in eastern Wyoming, based in Cheyenne.
Western Front
Finnicum said that the evacuation order of the Hartville area communities was because of advances that the Pleasant Valley Fire had made on the western front of the fire, and heavy plumes of smoke that were making visibility difficult for air tankers wanting to drop water and slurry on the fire to extinguish it.
The wind and weather conditions will dictate on what happens Saturday, he said. Forecasts call for temperatures in the region to push the 100-degree threshold.
The evacuation orders came after the fire on the eastern flank had begun making a push northward toward McGann Pass, so firefighters did a “burn out” to try to contain the area.
As of Saturday, it appeared that the advance of the fire on the eastern and southern flanks had slowed, he said.
The burn out in the McGann Pass area was an operation to secure the north side, he said
Finnicum didn’t rule out the possibility that the evacuation order for the Hartville area may be lifted Saturday afternoon.
Delay said that a Pleasant Valley Fire update will be provided to the community Saturday afternoon in Guernsey.
The meeting, which will be run by the Wyoming Forestry Division and other emergency officials involved in battling the fire, is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at the Guernsey-Sunrise High School, 172 W. Burlington St., in Guernsey.
The burn area in the Haystack range is between the McGinnis Pass and McCann Pass in Goshen County at about 5,000 feet in elevation. The range passes are located east of Whalen Canyon Road in the county and are located about 6 miles apart. The southern end of the fire is about 8 miles to the northeast of Guernsey, the area where the Pleasant Valley fire first started.
Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.
