Grass fire claims multiple homes as neighbors help one another evacuate

GILLETTE — Carol McPheeters sat in the driver’s seat of her parked pickup watching the smoke rise.

Within her view and maybe a mile down the road were a number of Campbell County firefighters, trucks and dozers fighting to contain a fire where her home used to be.

“My house is one of the ones that is not there,” she said.

McPheeters and her husband Willie lost their home Saturday afternoon in a grass fire off of Peaceful Valley Drive, just west of town. They were among several homes that were evacuated as strong winds shifted the flames in different directions, claiming the homes of a few people.

Shaylene Sherard said she lost her campers, which she lived in on her mother Nila Yoctorowic’s property, in the fire. Another family neighboring the McPheeters lost their home too.

Firefighters responded at about 3:30 p.m. and found the grass fire had spread to multiple structures and vehicles. The nearly 50 mph winds shifted directions, threatening additional structures, according to a Campbell County Fire Department press release.

The fire department reported that “a strong weather event” toppled a power pole, downing a power line that started the fire.

The fire burned two homes, several pets, and multiple empty structures and vehicles, according to the release, leaving four people displaced.

McPheeters and Sherard were among a group of neighbors who helped one another evacuate in a pinch as fire quickly burned a path through their properties. Not long after the fire started, with the response underway, they joined two lines of trucks and cars straddling the dirt road atop a hill overlooking the scene of the fire late Saturday afternoon.

“I lost — everything I’ve got is right there,” Sherard said, pointing to a Chevy Blazer, with her three dogs inside. “I got my dogs rescued.”

She and her mother Nila saw the smoke in the air while driving home from a trip to town, then saw their property on fire. She and her nephews, Taylor Yoctorowic and Hunter Ogle, did what they could before having to evacuate.

Sherard and Nila tried spraying down the grass near their fence line to keep the flames from spreading, but the fire eventually came for Nila’s three-quarter ton truck and water tanker.

“Another big gust of wind come across and I was literally shoving my mother out the passenger side door, and my nephew was catching her,” she said.

“It came right at us, and it only took seconds.”

The flames had blocked a path to the road, so they needed another route.

“Our neighbors cut the fence and let us come up through the pasture, because we couldn’t get out on the road,” Sherard said.

Stationed atop the hill aside several of her neighbors, Nila believed her home, on the other side of the road from her daughter’s campers, was fine. When asked what her property was like after the fire, she laughed.

“Black,” she said.

Michael Thwreatt was helping move a camper for his in-laws, who live in the area, when he saw the smoke and came to help. He moved about seven horses, a couple of goats and some turkeys and chickens to safety, he said.

The horses and goats were guided away from the fire, while the chickens and turkeys were sent out to the pasture, where they had an opportunity to move from the fire.

“Nila just said the turkeys and chickens are still in their pens,” someone told Thwreatt.

“They went back in there?” he said.

Apparently. He was told the chickens and turkeys were fine, as long as the smoke didn’t reach them.

“Turkeys aren’t the brightest,” Carol said.

There were plenty of tears and long faces as the neighbors, and their friends and family who came to help, watched the smoke slowly settle from atop the hill. But there were moments of levity too.

No fewer than three people made separate appeals to Carol while she shared her story, offering her help if needed or a place to stay, one of whom Carol said she had never met.

Some of them had lived in that patch of homes for many years. They wouldn’t describe themselves as tight-knit, but when they need one another, they’re there to help.

Firefighters stayed at the scene throughout the night and expected to return throughout the day Sunday.

The fire department stated in its press release that it “greatly appreciates” local residents who helped with heavy equipment and several agencies that responded to the scene Saturday.

This story was published on July 29, 2024.