Drought and unusually warm temperatures that have persisted in much of the region have been cited by U.S. fire managers as key factors in a 2015 fire season in the US West that brought the most destructive blaze in California history and the largest on record in Washington state.
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The fire pumped thick smoke into surrounding cities, including the state capital of Boise, prompting Idaho health officials to issue an air pollution alert warning people to avoid prolonged outdoor exposure. Nobody was hurt but pets and livestock perished, left behind as a few 1,300 people rushed to evacuate the rural area.
“It blew up and got away from us”, Fawcett said of the fire that broke out Saturday in a brush pile at a Casper landfill.
Natrona County Fire Prevention District reports that 5 p.m.is still the time for Cole Creek are residents to return to their homes and properties. Still, Crapser says longer nights with temperatures dipping into the 30s and 40s should help firefighters working to contain the flames. It is now only 50 percent contained.
An evacuation centre was set up at Casper College.
As of Monday afternoon, nearly 10,000 acres had burned an evacuation orders expanded after flames resumed spreading after the wind picked back up late Monday.
“All they needed was a spark”, said Kelly Allen, a National Weather Service fire program manager in Riverton, Wyoming. Winds gusting up to 50 miles per hour on Sunday pushed the blaze to the east, forcing evacuations in the Evansville area. He was able to rescue two dogs and a horse before smoke forced him out of the area, he told the Casper Star-Tribune.
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-Grass fires elsewhere in the Dakotas destroyed at least one home and shut down highways including part of Interstate 29.
