Weeks of living out of suitcases in fear they may return to a home burned to the ground is over for all but one resident in the path of a pair of massive Wyoming wildfires that have threatened people and property for weeks.
Along with helping firefighting crews turn a corner on battling the 96,000-acre Elk Fire and 89,000-acre Pack Trail fire in northern Wyoming, this week’s blast of winter has allowed officials to let nearly everyone evacuated by the fires to go home.
All, that is, except for one primary residence near the mouth of Tongue River Canyon just southwest of Dayton in the middle of the Elk Fire.
“Up until yesterday we had ‘go’ orders for folks up north and all the way to the south” of the eastern boundary of the fire, said Sheridan County Sheriff Levi Dominguez. “Now we have one little section in the mouth of the Tongue River Canyon, and that’s only one resident.”
As hundreds of firefighters at a time have battled the Elk Fire, local resources like Dominguez have been working for three weeks to protect people and homes.
Until Friday, that has mostly meant telling people to quickly pack their necessities and leave their homes — or get ready to leave.
Now, he gets to give good news.
“It’s a great feeling to be able to reduce some of those evacuation statuses,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Saturday. “You can certainly hear the (relief) in people’s voices when we make those phone calls and tell them they can go back home.”
At the Pack Trail Fire west of Dubois in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, all evacuations have been lifted, but a laundry list of areas remain on notice to be ready to leave if necessary.
Sheridan County Sheriff Levi Dominguez, right, and his team have spent the last three weeks handling evacution orders and keeping people in the area of the Elk Fire informed. (Sheridan County Sheriff's Office) 
Elk Fire evacuaion map as of Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
It’s Personal
Protecting the residents of Sheridan County is Dominguez’s job, what he was elected two years ago to do. But he’d be neck-deep in protecting people from the Elk Fire even if he wasn’t sheriff.
Dominguez grew up in Dayton, which nearly burned down in the first hours of the fire’s explosive growth. His mother still lives there.
He now lives with his family in Big Horn, which had been in the path of advancing flames until the winter storm hit.
“The area I grew up in, I remember being on those mountains,” he said. “It’s going to be different with the things that have changed (because of the fire). This is definitely my hometown.
“I also have never seen fire activity like this, and of this magnitude, in this area.”
In the spring after the winter snowpack melts and reveals a scorched mountain face, Dominguez said he’ll have mixed emotions.
He’ll be sad to see it like that, but also glad that despite the intensity and terrifying run the Elk Fire made, nobody was killed and only two primary residences were lost.
“When I see the face and the things that burned, it’s not only going to bring back memories of childhood, but all the great work people did during all of this,” he said.
Turning A Corner
Although the storm, which brought rain to the fire areas and snow to the higher elevations, isn’t a fire killer, it has turned the corner on how hot and volatile they are, said Kim Soper, a fire behavior analyst attached to the Pack Trail Fire.
“Three or four days ago, the fire was really active,” he said during a Friday briefing. “We were seeing a lot of burning in the timber with a lot of bug-killed, dead and downed material. And it was really burning hot, chewing up the timber stands.”
The cold front changed that, he said.
“Well, the last two days, we’ve actually had a cold front that’s moved in. It was a wet cold front,” Soper said. “What that has done is really cooled off the fire, those dry fuel beds out there are now starting to take on moisture … to where the fire is pretty much stopped from spreading.”
That echoes reports coming out of the Elk Fire camp, and both incident management teams say the nature of the fires seems to have changed. That’s allowed the Pack Trail Fire to get to 62% completion, while the Elk Fire is at 44% contained as of the last update Friday.
Looking forward, the weather will start to warm up again, which could increase fire activity, but not blow up like before, Soper said.
The fuels have taken on some moisture, but even if they dry out there is less sunlight every day as the year gets deeper into the calendar, he said. That means less direct sun on the area.
“We won’t see the type of burning we had early on (during) those intense burning days,” he said. The storm “really put a hurt on the fire.”
Contact Greg Johnson at greg@cowboystatedaily.com
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
