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Fires in southeast Wyoming cause Hartville to evacuate

A fire illuminates the silhouette of a ridgeline under darkening skies.
Goshen County Emergency Management

This story is part of our Quick Hits series. This series will bring you breaking news and short updates from throughout the state.

A wildfire burning north of Guernsey has forced the town of Hartville and the Pleasant Valley subdivision to evacuate.

A lightning strike a few days ago ignited a blaze on the Haystacks. Crews thought they had it contained by the night of July 29. But the fire reignited the next day, and a separate large grass fire in nearby Pleasant Valley also sparked. The fires merged and made a run, crossing Highway 26.

Goshen County Emergency Management says Hartville was evacuated overnight because it was “under direct threat of being run over by the fire.”

Local, state and federal crews worked overnight protecting about a hundred homes, Guernsey’s oil tanks and Highway 26.

Area residents on tractors also scratched several miles of fire line, allowing firefighters to save homes.

The Wyoming National Guard opened Camp Guernsey as a shelter.

A section map showing land northwest of Ft. Laramie is overlaid with the estimated footprint of the Pleasant Valley/Haystacks Fire as of July 31, 2024.
Wyoming State Forestry Division
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Estimated impact area from the Pleasant Valley/Haystack fires as of the morning of July 31, 2024.

As of Wednesday night, no structures were reported lost. The fire is estimated to be about 27,000 acres.

FEMA has authorized funds to help with firefighting costs.

Nicky has reported and edited for public radio stations in Montana and produced episodes for NPR's The Indicator podcast and Apple News In Conversation. Her award-winning series, SubSurface, dug into the economic, environmental and social impacts of a potential invasion of freshwater mussels in Montana's waterbodies. She traded New Hampshire's relatively short but rugged White Mountains for the Rockies over a decade ago. The skiing here is much better.

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