Cellers fire burns 3,396 acres

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
Flames in the distance, smoke in the air and calls for prayers on Facebook, a scene all too familiar during a drought and fire season in Wyoming. This is exactly what loomed in the distance as a thunder storm rolled into the area the afternoon of June 23. 
Firefighters responded about 4:30 that afternoon to calls regarding a grass fire north of the Cellers Loop Road, according to Weston County Fire Warden Daniel Tysdal. This call was the start of a long night fighting an unpredictable grass fire in the dark and wild Wyoming wind. 
Due to the unpredictability of these fires, the large amount of land and potential response time, landowners watch for fires when storms roll in, are prepared to respond to the blaze and aid in the fire suppression as much as possible, according to Nicky Groenewold, one of the many that called for prayers that evening as the fire crept toward their property.
 “I did not personally go fight the fire,” she said. “Virtually every county person, rancher and farmer, has a fire unit. Some are provided by the county, and some are of our own devising.” 
Her family had used a personal unit for years before accessing a county unit equipped with radios, making communication possible between others involved in the fire-fighting efforts. 
So, as the storms roll in over the prairie, Groenewold and her husband take the fire truck up to a vantage point near their home in Cheyenne River Valley and wait out the storm, watching for any sign of fire until the storm moves on. 
Fires in rural Wyoming present many challenges, according to Groenewold, including locating the fire, accessing the fire and fighting it in unknown landscape. 
“One of the biggest problems with these rural fires is that lightning doesn’t choose a location close to a road or a landmark,” she said. “We spend half the time trying to figure out where the fire is, how to get there and how to direct the next batch of firefighters.” 
To combat this issue, many of the fire units are equipped with a supply of glow sticks to illuminate the best route to the fire.
“Then the trailblazers can mark their route with flagging and lights,” Groenewold explained. “Although, if you don’t have those things, I’ve seen the turnoffs marked with a six pack of pop or somebody’s jacket draped over a sagebrush.” 
Once the fire is located, landowners in the area begin fighting the blaze as firefighters respond to the calls. 
“The problem is, that storms usually come to us from the west and keep going to the east. So, when they dispatch firefighters from Newcastle, they’ll be fighting fire all the way out to us (landowners fighting the blaze),” Groenewold said. “That is why everybody has their own unit and responds immediately to a fire, usually within a certain distance.” 
“It can be dangerous to head off to a fire that’s too far away, turn around and notice lightning sparking a fire half a mile from your home, which has happened to almost every one of us,” she added. 
With most of the fires starting at sunset, when thunderstorms are likely to be the worst, the dark poses another obstacle in battling a blaze on the prairie. 
“Those are terrifying to me,” Groenewold said. “We’ve had neighbors roll their vehicles, fire trucks topple off into a ravine and equipment break down in the path of the fire.” 
While none of those incidents happened last week, Groenewold said, the Cellers fire was terrifying because of the number of people fighting the blaze, many of whom did not know the country, especially in the dark, and how bad the wind was. 
“It is most definitely scarier to be at home waiting than to be on the fire line sometimes,” Groenewold said. “But every neighbor shows up to fight fire, and the wives who stay home are praying — for lots of things — mainly the safety of the crews on the fire, no homes to be lost and then control so that minimum forage/timber is lost, as well as livestock and wildlife.” 
Dana Gordon, who lives in the area, was in Mexico at the time of the fire. She was thankful for the response of other landowners and the firefighters. 
“We felt pretty helpless,” she said. “We are overwhelmed with the amount of support our amazing community gives. I had people calling my cell to ask what we needed. Our whole county rallies when there is something like this.” 
These weren’t just people fighting the fire knocking at their front doors. 
“We had people from all ends of the county here and offering help. From fighting the fire with trucks, bringing in much needed water, blades and everything, to offering to help move cattle or help us evacuate the house,” Gordon said. 
“We have never had a fire that close to our buildings,” she continued. “We lost a small amount of grass but no one was hurt and no livestock lost, which makes us feel very blessed.” 
In the end, Tysdal said, the fire scorched 3,396 acres of grass and heavy sage northwest of the Cellers Loop Road off Wyoming Highway 450. The head of the fire came within two miles of structures to the south, but none were lost. The fire did not cross the highway, staying about 2.5 miles north of the road. 
According to Tysdal, a total of 26 engines, six water tenders, eight blades, one dozer, one air attack, two single-engine air tankers and seven miscellaneous overhead resources were used to battle the blaze. Representatives from the Wyoming State Forestry Division, Thunder Basin National Grassland, Bureau of Land Management, Campbell County and the Weston County Fire Protection District responded to the fire. 
The fire was contained in less than 24 hours, although fuel in the fire lines continued to burn after containment. 
“That one last week took a big part of the neighbor’s fall pasture. That’s a hardship, even in a good year,” Groenewold concluded. “In this drought, it could be a catastrophe.”