End of Elk Fire in sight
SHERIDAN — The Elk Fire, which has officially been burning for a month, is in its final stretch, according to fire officials who shared the good news Monday night during a public meeting at Sheridan Junior High School.
“The end of this fire season is in sight for all of us,” Bighorn National Forest Supervisor Andrew Johnson said.
Wyoming State Forestry Division Forester Kelly Norris said this is the largest fire she has ever taken part in.
“I’ve spent 12 years of my career in the Bighorns, and this is by far the largest fire I’ve ever experienced,” Norris said.
Norris thanked the Sheridan community for all their support and patience and recognized all of the local fire districts and volunteers who assisted on the fire.
This fire season has been one for the record books for Wyoming, Norris said.
“This has been a pretty epic fire season, the largest on record when it comes to acres burned,” Norris said. “We’ve been tracking about 1,918 fires across the state (this season) and over 847,740 acres have burned.”
Norris added this fire season has almost doubled the previous largest fire season on record, which happened in 2012. Many ranchers, farmers and landowners in Sheridan County have been impacted by the wildfires that left their land scarred. However, help is on the way, Norris said.
“Wyoming has received an updated U.S. Department of Agriculture secretarial disaster designation due to the damages and losses from the wildfires in Sheridan County. The State Land Board of Commissioners just announced the October board meeting did approve to expand the restoration and recovery funds for all wildfires post the 2012 wildfire season, and these funds are going to be set aside to go beyond just erosion and weed control,” Norris said.
The funds will now include native grass and tree planting as well as livestock water and fence reestablishment, Norris said.
Sheridan County Sheriff Levi Dominguez also spoke at the meeting Monday night and discussed active closures.
“We have no areas that are in any evacuation status right now,” Dominguez said. “We have a few road closures and some of those might be in place for a long time.”
One of those will probably be the Tongue River Canyon Road, Dominguez said.
“When you think about all of the fire that’s burned through that area and all of the boulders and things that are falling down in the roads, if we allow people to come in and hike, that’s just really dangerous,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez added people are working to reopen closed areas again as quickly as possible.
A much-needed snow is expected to impact the Bighorns and Sheridan area from Tuesday through Wednesday, Elk Fire Meteorologist Gary Zell said.
“Wednesday morning snowfall totals with this system above 7,500 feet could see 10 to 14 inches of snow,” Zell said. “There will be spots that come in above 14 inches, I’m convinced of that.”
This story was published on October 29, 2024.