Ranchers in the path of a fast-growing wildfire that’s churned through thousands of acres of pasture and timber about 17 miles southwest of Wheatland are more than worried.
“It’s really difficult to watch,” said lifetime rancher Pat Bowen, whose Bowen Farms ranch is about 6 miles from the fire. “There are very few — well, you can’t even consider them roads — up there. They’re more like trails, and access is really difficult.
“Now the fire is coming east down the hill.”
That difficult access has been one of the main challenges in fighting what’s been dubbed the Moonshine Fire, which as of Friday morning had consumed an estimated 4,869 acres in a remote corner of northern Albany County, said Kalie Glines, a public information officer with the Wyoming Type 3 Incident Management Team battling the wildfire.
“It’s very rugged out there, and they’re using a lot of aviation to combat that, and using UTVs when they can,” she told Cowboy State Daily on Friday. “A lot of times, we start with the air (attack) to allow more access for firefighters on the ground, and we’re building contingency lines with dozers.”
Because much of the fire is in extremely rugged terrain, Bowen said he spent much of Thursday watching a steady stream of air tankers skimming nearby Grayrocks Reservoir to make repeated trips to drop water on the fire.
“We live about, as the crow flies, about 6 miles from the fire and the planes have been flying over our house about every half hour,” he said. “There were four of those planes, and then I saw two others working all day trying to knock the fire down.”
Bowen took video of an impressive line of CL-415EAF Super Scoopers filling up at the same time, then making runs in a line over the fire before coming back for multiple refills.
He’s especially concerned for ranchers who are losing valuable forage. Bowen said he knows that the fire has impacted one nearby property that people depend on to run their cows.
“It’s where I used to run my cattle,” he said. “It’s going to be pretty tough for everybody up there, for sure, losing the pasture and all the trees. We hate seeing that.”
‘It’s Not Raging Out Of Control’
The fire has grown quickly since it was started by lightning on Monday, Glines said. And the response to fight the blaze has also grown.
There are now 254 personnel working the Moonshine Fire with an emphasis on aerial attacks and using bulldozers to set lines around the fire. As more firefighters are able to safely get on the ground in some of the more remote area, they’ll work on building more firelines, she said.
“They’re going to try to get to some areas (Friday) that were previously inaccessible and extending the dozer lines,” Glines said. “And, holding and strengthening what they’ve put in so far.”
With winds starting to pick up from the west, the fire has been “pushing more east,” she said.
Two unoccupied buildings so far have been confirmed burned.
“The two outbuildings that were lost, it’s believed they were lost in the initial hours of the fire,” Glines said. “One of them was a hunting cabin and the other was a very old cabin.”
While the latest status update of the fire shows it at closing in on 5,000 acres and with 0% containment, that doesn’t mean firefighters aren’t making progress on controlling the fire, she said.
“No, it’s not raging out of control,” Glines said. “The incident commanders want to make very sure that when they mark an area ‘contained,’ that the fire won’t push outside of that line.”
In the meantime, firefighters aren’t expecting much help from the weather this weekend, with high temperatures forecast from about 80-85 degrees and winds picking up, blowing east with gusts between 35-45 mph.
The wind “will be our biggest challenge,” Glines said, adding that “the chances for rain over the weekend also have gone down to about 25%.”
‘All We Can Do Is Pray And Hope’
Bowen said the potential for wildfire is one of the things that can make ranchers lose a lot of sleep. That there’s little to nothing they can do about it can be extra frustrating.
“Most people try to stay out of the professional firefighters’ way, let them do their work,” he said. “There’s not much a rancher can do in that case.
“You want to help all you can, but without the proper equipment, you’re more than likely just getting in the way.”
There is one thing those in the path of the Moonshine Fire can do, and it’s something people who live in rural Wyoming do a lot of, Bowen said.
“All we can do is pray and hope for some real moisture,” he said. “Everybody’s praying and hoping for the best and concerned, for sure.”
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
