The Badger Creek Fire in southern Wyoming’s Medicine Bow National Forest just north of the Colorado border has spread to over 2300 acres since Sunday. The wildfire has two heads and is moving both north and east causing several communities to evacuate and Highway 230 to close. Also, Highway 10 is closed from Woods Landing to the Colorado state line.It has grown primarily due to wind.
Medicine Bow National Forest spokesman Aaron Voos said the fire is not likely to slow down anytime soon.
“It isn’t contained at all right now and is in similar types of fuel conditions. And the forecast for the next few days is continued. Warm, dry, breezy, conditions.” Voos said, "we’re anticipating that we’re not going to get a foothold with this thing for a while here.”
A similarly sized fire last year took months to finish burning. In the meantime, Voos said several agencies are doing their best to fight the fire and minimize damage.
“Protecting those communities in a variety of ways, removing dead fuel, setting up sprinkler systems. Suppressing the fire where we could, putting out spot fires, if it spots into a community. And then assessing any sort of damage or potential for where the fire could move,” Voos said.
Already, flame retardant has kept the wildfire from causing more damage in the Wold Tract community. Aerial resources have also been particularly helpful, according to Voos.
The origin of the fire is still unknown and the Medicine Bow National Forest is asking the public who might have been in the area Sunday afternoon to provide insight on what happened. Voos said anyone can call 307-745-2392 and press option 5 to leave a detailed message with relevant information.
There have not been any injuries of firefighters or citizens.
You can stay updated on the wildfire using the Incident Information System.