THERMOPOLIS — A grass fire sparked by an intense afternoon thunderstorm Monday afternoon continues to grow and burn about 5 miles southeast of town in Hot Springs County.
The fire grew overnight to more than 1,600 acres and is considered 0% contained as the Bureau of Land Management has launched an aerial attack on the fire.
So far, about $1 million has been spent fighting what’s been named the Warm Springs Fire, the Wyoming State Forestry Division reports.
“There is no containment to report yet and we're going to do some more accurate mapping, but I would want people to know that we're expecting more of the same weather today. It's very hot and dry out there,” BLM spokeswoman Sarah Beckwith told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday. “There is a very large grass load this year that we need to contend with, and all the fuels are very dry.”
The BLM is battling several fires in the region and firefighters are battling by air and land.
“There were six new starts yesterday that BLM, county firefighters and other federal firefighters responded to,” Beckwith said. “They're in various stages of containment. So today, we're still working on these fires. Some of them we are mopping up and monitoring”
The fires were all started by lighting Monday, beginning from noon until about 5:30 in the afternoon.
Locals Fight, Too
Chip Axtell, a longtime rancher in Hot Springs County, was on the scene with son-in-law Laramie Crockett battling the blaze.
“I was on the fire line yesterday with my son-in-law, and it was in an area with a huge amount of brush fuel when it ignited,” Axtell said. “The fire grew rapidly and we were very grateful for the people that reached out and asked if they could help.”
The Thermopolis Volunteer Fire Department was first to respond to the fire and crews continued to help throughout the night.
“We had a fire there four years ago,” Thermopolis Fire Chief Mark Collins said. “That has helped us out a little bit because when we started out with two fires and then they burned together, and the furthest one to the west actually burned into the part of the one that burned in 2019.”
The main focus for fighting the fire is on the northeast area toward Thermopolis, Collins said. The crews are keeping an eye on the winds to see which way the fire will go.
“There's some power infrastructure at the oil field in the area,” Collins said. “If it burns to the south, there's structures and residential areas down there off of Buffalo Creek.”
“The planes responded with retardant trying to contain the fire and did a great job in an area that ground crews really couldn’t get to,” Axtell said. “It wasn’t on our property but could have been quickly if the wind shifted. I’m just glad that they sent the resources early before the fire was uncontrollable.”
Smoke rises from the Warm Springs Fire. (Courtesy Levi Shinkle) 
Fire crews are stationed near the fire line of the Warm Springs Fire. (Courtesy Stevie Ellis) 
Warm Springs Fire from about half a mile away. (Courtesy Levi Shinkle) 
Warm Springs Fire from about half a mile away. (Courtesy Levi Shinkle) 
The glow from the Warm Springs Fire, view from Round Top in Thermopolis (Courtesy Daniel Burton) 
(Cowboy State Daily Staff)
Difficult Terrain
The Warm Springs Fire is located in difficult terrain that can only be reached by air.
“Some of that terrain up there is really rough,” Collins said. “A lot of deep canyons, but we also have flat ground that changes to rolling hills. Lots of juniper, cedar, sagebrush and grass. It may not be quite the drought conditions, but it's pretty close.”
Levi Shinkle spent two hours watching the fire and aerial attack from about a half mile away.
“It would flare up and you'd have tall flames and they'd be shooting in the air, and then you'd think it was done. It would just kind of die down and looked like it wasn't anything else,” Shinkle said. “Then a little bit of wind would kick back up and push it into a clump of sagebrush and it would take off again.”
Air Attack
The helicopters are mainly based in Worland where they can refuel with retardant.
“Yesterday, multiple county and federal engines responded along with a really strong air attack and that included seats,” Beckwith said. “Seats are single-engine air tankers. We also had large air tankers and helicopters. And so that air attack continues today. That's helpful because this fire is burning in challenging terrain. It makes the access difficult so that the air attack is going to continue.”
“It was controlled chaos,” said James Yule, a photojournalist, in describing the scene at the Worland airport. “These planes were coming in and out. They did over 30 refueling and filling up with the fire retardant. They can do three drops and come back and then fill up with fuel. But they land here (at the Worland airfield). We have a base station here in Worland where can fill those fire retardant planes up with retardant.
“I'd never seen anything like it with planes coming in and coming out. And it was like a whirlwind, just nonstop. When I say chaos, they knew what they were doing. It was controlled, but it was just everything was going on at once. And these ground crews had had all their hands full.”
“We are working on fire suppression tactics,” Collins said about the land attack. “Right now we've got four engines and two water tenders up there right now.”
Public lands in the area are in State 1 fire strictions, including Hot Springs County, which means no open burning or fireworks.
Contact Jackie Dorothy at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
