Fire danger prompts local bans

Fire season has already brought significant damage to Crook County, with the Fish Wildfire responsible for devouring thousands of acres. This has brought the welfare of residents and property to the fore with fire department and council in neighboring communities, Moorcroft and Pine Haven.

Moorcroft

While Moorcroft has not previously mandated an absolute fire ban, adhering to an ordinance allowing open flames under specific conditions. After discussion with Moorcroft Volunteer Fire Department Chief Rusty Williamson during this last week, according to Clerk Cheryl Schneider, the council has revised that law and abolished that exception.

The governing body has established, by the amended ordinance, a complete fire ban within town limits.

Pine Haven

After watching and subsequently stopping a citizen attempting to mow the dry grass behind their home, Pine Haven's Public Works Director Sunny Schell advises Pine Haven residents, with full approval from the governing body, to stop all mowing on yards that are dry this season.

If property owners wish to manage their lawns, they are asked to "weed whack".

"All it would take is to hit a rock or a piece of metal and it's done," said Schell.

If the yard is very green and extremely well watered, sparks are mitigated, however, the risk is too great. If there is any doubt, Mayor Karla Brandenburg says, "If there's a question, just don't mow."

Fire liaison and councilman Don Lancaster, who was on one of the teams fighting that aforementioned Fish Wildfire, asks those who ride ATVs and UTVs to stay out of all long grass.

"One thing we experienced on that fire, yesterday, was that the tall grass, a lot of it is really green in the shady areas, but it's just as volatile as the brown grass. It burned and it burned hot," he said.

Recent Burns

With the Fish Wildfire still burning, Pine Haven and Moorcroft joined together a couple days later to fight a local blaze near Pine Haven and were able to stop this burn from escalating.

Due to the high temperatures this summer and the severe dryness of the terrain, area fire fighters are already under stress; residents are asked to be vigilant in every effort to keep lives and property safe.

A grass fire, suspected to have been started by an ATV used to herd livestock on the west side of Keyhole State Park range, east of Highway 14, brought Pine Haven and Moorcroft firefighters out again last Thursday. The volunteers were able to contain the damage to less than two acres, according to park superintendent Greg Devereaux.

"It was about 10 a.m. when we spotted it from across the water, we called it in and immediately went to our fire units and when we got there, Moorcroft and Pine Haven were already on site with their fire trucks," he said.

"They were working on it and pretty much had it put out by the time we got there...we babysat it for a couple hours...there were no flare ups."

Devereaux reiterates Lancaster's advice to avoid using ATVs in the field, saying, "Be on horseback instead of using four wheelers or anything like that because you can start fires out there."