For the first time since the Elk Fire literally blew up overnight more than a week ago, prompting a laundry list of evacuations and threatening the rural northern Wyoming towns of Dayton and Parkman, firefighters are preparing to attack the 73,000-acre wildfire rather than react to it.
“We’ve been on the defense from the start. This fire shown an incredible resistance to control,” said Bighorn National Forest Supervisor Andrew Johnson during a Sunday night community meeting about the fire. “I’m sick of being on the defense. We’re ready to go on the offense.”
That optimism comes after an extremely active spurt for the fire overnight Friday, which saw strong winds gusting between 50-60 mph push the Elk Fire for miles southwest along the face of the Bighorns.
“We are seeing unprecedented weather conditions for this time of year and unprecedented fire behavior,” Johnson said. “Case in point: In the last 100 years … the largest wildfire we’d had on the (Bighorn National) Forest is roughly 18,000 acres. That fire took a month to grow to 18,000 acres.
“On Friday night, this fire grew 25,000 acres in a matter of hours.”
That “unprecedented” weather for this time of year backed off enough Sunday to give the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team more opportunity to get control of the situation.
And it has, reporting Monday morning that the Elk Fire has so far remained at the estimated 73,000 acres it was after its big run Friday night and early Saturday, and is now 10% contained.
The winds dying down has been “a huge help,” said Kristie Thompson, spokesperson for the incident management team.
With that expected to continue over the next couple of days, fire crews will take a more offensive tact, she said.
“What that looks like is we’ve gotten a chance to look at the overall area and improving different roads away from the fire’s edge,” she said. “We’re removing vegetation, we’re widening those roads as well so there’s a better chance of meeting the fire there and stopping it.”
While the fire made a big push and saw huge growth, it was expected, Thompson said.
“On Friday, during the day, we had several large air tankers dropping retardant knowing there was a very high potential for the wind to move that fire to the southeast,” she said. “Which is what it did. It worked very well.”
It’s Personal
The Eaton’s Ranch area was in the path of that push, and while the Elk Fire burned all around it, its buildings didn’t.
In the Horseshoe subdivision southwest of Dayton, two homes were lost that night, but many others saved, said Tongue River Fire District-Ranchester Fire Chief Jeff Barron. He was on protection duty with his volunteer crew in the subdivision.
“All of us were out there, and it was wild,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Monday. “Even though we lost two structures, we certainly had the potential to lose a lot more. It was the valiant efforts of all those helping protect property.”
Protecting areas like where Barron’s crew was and the Eaton Ranch is personal for Barron and his department.
“That part of the country has a lot of history up there, and there’s a lot more to Eaton’s Ranch than just a place to live,” he said. “It’s important to us.”
For residents, days threatened by a wildfire can take a toll, Barron said.
“It’s highly emotional for a lot of people,” he said. “There’s a helpless feeling, but there is some progress. This is just a fire like no one’s ever seen before. It just is.”
Crews from the Tongue River Fire Distict work to protect people and property from the Elk Fire. (Tongue River Fire District) 
Crews from the Tongue River Fire Distict work to protect people and property from the Elk Fire. (Tongue River Fire District) 
A helicopter refills its water bucket to drop on the Elk Fire. (Tongue River Fire District) 
Crews from the Tongue River Fire Distict work to protect people and property from the Elk Fire. (Tongue River Fire District) 
Crews from the Tongue River Fire Distict work to protect people and property from the Elk Fire. (Tongue River Fire District) 
Crews from the Tongue River Fire Distict work to protect people and property from the Elk Fire. (Tongue River Fire District) 
Crews from the Tongue River Fire Distict work to protect people and property from the Elk Fire. (Tongue River Fire District)
‘Nothing Like It’
That’s the feeling Mark Garrison describes about the potential to lose a family cabin his father built in the area in 1960.
It’s on the western edge of the Elk Fire past Black Mountain road on state land just on the border of the Bighorn National Forest. He was allowed back at one point to get some stuff out of the cabin, but it remains part of an evacuated area.
So far, it’s still there as far as Garrison knows.
“The fire was pretty close to it across the road,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Monday. “The thing was just out of control. It was completely out of our control, there’s nothing we can do except just sitting and watching.
“It’s caused a lot of lost sleep, frankly. We just rebuilt that cabin five years ago.”
Garrison grew up in Dayton and has seen wildfires before, but not like the Elk Fire.
“Nothing like it, like, ever,” he said. “There’s just a lot of stress and a lot of lost sleep. It’s terrible, unbelievable. There’s a lot of nice people up there.”
That includes the 850 or so residents of Dayton, who have been on edge for more than week under threat of being told to leave their homes. So far, that hasn’t happened.
For that, Mayor Clifford Reed said he and the town are very grateful to the hundreds of firefighters working to protect them.
“The effort that they’ve shown to me and the town of Dayton has been extraordinary,” Reed said during Sunday’s meeting. “I am very grateful, and my heart goes out to those who have lost their homes out in the Horseshoe subdivision.
“Other than losing a loved one, we have no idea what it could be like to lose a home, especially going into winter.”
Aside from protecting the people and town, Reed said his main concern was for Dayton’s water supply.
The fire got “within a few hundred yards of our water plant,” he said. “It is vital to the town of Dayton that our water plant is up and functioning.”
He also asked that people not speculate or spread rumors about the fire on social media.
“We did have a little problem with rumor control for awhile, but we kind of stomped on that a little bit,” the mayor said. “That’s really not good when you have people spreading rumors that instill fear and uncertainty.”
A message for firefighters in Parkman for those fighting the Elk Fire. (Parkman Bar and Grill) 
A convoy of trucks move into the Elk Fire zone to help move cattle off the mountain. (U.S. Forestr Service-Bighorn National Forest)
In A Nutshell
Holding at about 73,000 acres, the fire remains very active, but also is about 10% contained, the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team reports Monday.
The weather has mellowed, especially the wind, allowing fire crews to do more proactive work on establishing fire lines and containment over the next couple of days.
There are 680 people working to build breaks and lines around the fire, as well as clear out or burn any fuels within where safe to do so.
No new evacuations have been ordered and none were lifted. Those area ordered to leave are:
• The area within Eaton's Ranch Road to the intersection of Beckton Road, then south to Big Goose Road and west to Rapid Creek.
• Little Horn Canyon
• Eaton’s Ranch.
• Tongue River Canyon.
• Pass Creek and Twin Creek roads west of Parkman.
• All homes from X-X Ranch north to the Montana state line.
• Tongue River Canyon west of Dayton where the road turns to dirt.
• The Horseshoe subdivision.
• Homes west of Beckton Road from Dayton south to the intersection of Beckton and Eaton • Ranch roads.
• Eagle Ridge subdivision and homes directly east of U.S. Highway 14 up the mountain.
Along with Dayton now on “set” status, so are:
• South of Twin Creek Road from Parkman north of Amsden Road; also west of Highway 343, including along Smith Creek and Columbus Creek roads.
• Homes east of Tongue Canyon and Amsden roads.
The best and most current information about the Elk Fire is being posted to the U.S. Forest Service-Bighorn National Forest and Sheridan County Government Facebook pages.
Another community meeting on the Elk Fire is set for 7 p.m. at Big Horn High School.
Contact Greg Johnson at greg@cowboystatedaily.com
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
