A grass fire on the north end of the Wind River Indian Reservation prompted the evacuation of at least one home Wednesday afternoon, as authorities worried the fire would jump the Wind River into thick brush and toward the town of Riverton.
Windy C’Hair watched the flames and smoke bend through the field west of her home on the reservation.
U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs agents let her gather some things from her house just after 4 p.m. She rescued her dog Oscar, some family photographs and clothes - but she wasn’t able to round up her cats, she told Cowboy State Daily on scene.
Her family photographs and her home are what she has left of her late parents, C’Hair said.
She said her cousin first texted her about the fire around 3p.m. It spread quickly amid hot, dry, windy conditions in Fremont County on Wednesday afternoon.
Windy C'Hair managed to save her dog Oscar from her home when evacuated, but couldn't round up her cats. (Clair McFarland, Cowboy State Daily)
Then It Did Jump
Meanwhile on the police scanner, Fremont County Sheriff Ryan Lee asked for Riverton fire personnel to tend the north side of the Wind River, over concerns the fire would jump the river to approach the more residentially-packed town of Riverton.
The fire did jump the river at about that time, running at about 20 mph, Lee told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday evening.
One BIA agent on scene urged people to stay back.
“All of this is dead fuel and this fire could run across it like that,” the agent told Cowboy State Daily on scene, gesturing to a vast field of brush west of C’Hair’s home. “You gotta get back to the road.”
Tankers arrived on the south, or reservation side of the river about 4:45.
“So it’s pinched off pretty good at this point” from the south, said one agent, on the scanner.
Another agent told Cowboy State Daily a water plane was due to fly over at about 5 p.m. He said he did not know which agency was bringing the plane. One reason multiple BIA vehicles were on scene was to evacuate the dozen or more homes along Red Crow Lane if needed.
Bystanders on Red Crow Lane watched, perched on trucks and fences.
A thick column of smoke dispersed across Riverton and parts of the reservation from 3 to 5 p.m. It unfurled and lightened after that.
A sheriff’s deputy in a truck raced down Riverview Road with his lights and siren on and whipped into an upscale golf-course neighborhood on the Riverton side three minutes later.
Numerous deputies followed.
Law enforcement personnel set up a row of vehicles and allowed only residents into the neighborhood.
Down by the river, airplanes coursed the fire multiple times, dropping pink chemical clouds into the early evening.
By 7:30 p.m., the fire crews were in "mop up mode," said Lee, crediting the “class A” operations of fire departments in the county.
Cowboy State Daily will update this story as more information surfaces.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
