Many Wyomingites are looking back and trying to make sense of this year’s wildfire season. The state saw some 2,000 wildfires, with over 850,000 acres burned. Most of that land was privately owned, complicating recovery efforts.
County firefighters and officials recently met for the 64th Annual Wyoming Rural Fire Meeting to recap the season and trade lessons learned.
“You will need to train your folks, A, to write legibly.”
That’s Chris Thomas, Sheridan County’s fire warden. He’s speaking to a room of well over 200 firefighters. Some listen intently, some distracted on their phone, some taking a power nap. Understandably, attendees are tired and still dealing with the aftermath of a fire season officials described as “historic.”
“We've heard other people say, ‘How do you train for a 100,000-acre fire that's moving at 40 miles an hour?’” said Thomas. “You don't even think of things like that. Well, now we do, because we've seen it. There [was] a lot of reestablishment of relationships and working together. We all work together very well, but it's helped to refresh a lot of that stuff.”
Tom Lubis with Crook County Volunteer Fire was on the ground, fighting some of these blazes. He said that the length of the season and the size of some of the burns took him and his crew by surprise. But he said it was also an opportunity to re-engage with the people his crew serves.
“A lot of relationships with local landowners and stuff were able to be built or re-established,” said Lubis. “The slower fire seasons the last few years, we weren't getting those interactions. And now those are back, which is a positive.”
Listening to speakers and talking with firefighters, it was clear that the theme of interacting with the public was a primary concern for the conference. In the middle of quick-moving wildfires, departments found themselves scrambling to distribute up-to-date, accurate information to the public.
Some private landowners initially didn’t want to work with fire departments. Others were eager to help – even if it was at the wrong place and time.
Some departments reported combating misinformation about evacuation orders. Others reported dealing with public alert systems that couldn’t reach landlines.
Shad Cooper, chair of the Wyoming State Fire Advisory Board, emphasized the importance of fire departments to prepare these avenues of communication for the next time around.
“I think it's absolutely critical for the community to be involved with their fire departments,” said Cooper. “When a large incident happens, it's so critical that we work together [and] hat we have consistent messaging and go to a known source. So there's always going to be a public information officer (PIO) or some sort of an official means of notification from the incident, and just encourage the public to follow that official information and to avoid speculation about what the fire is doing.”
Communication is [vital] during a fire, but there’s thing the public can do to prepare.
Cooper thinks distribution of knowledge falls on the shoulders of firefighters and public officials, saying he wanted to really “emphasize this point” of public preparation.
“There's all kinds of risk reduction strategies and ways to reduce hazardous fuels and harden your homes to reduce the risk from ignition on your home. It's important to do that when there's not a fire at your door,” said Cooper.
If future fire seasons resemble this year’s, then fire departments in Wyoming will need more support, manpower and funding. James Rietz, also on the Wyoming state Fire Advisory Board, says that this is the message he’s taking from the conference and to the Legislature for next year’s fire season.
“Probably the biggest take away is we're going to have active fire seasons every now and then, and we need to support the firefighters if we can,” said Rietz. “We're getting stretched pretty thin on our fire departments, and volunteerism is down statewide. We really need to support those and help them wherever we can.”
Wyoming firefighters are proud to say despite costly and extensive property damage, there was no loss of life. In fact, according to Chris Thomas, one man experienced a moment of miraculous hope – even when he was surrounded by scorched earth.
“The hillside was black and here comes probably half dozen of his old cows, through the black coming out to him. And he broke down and cried, because his girls made it and were coming home. He figured everything had been lost, but they apparently found someplace up there to hide and said, ‘OK it's clear. It's time to come home guys. We're going to make it,” said Thomas, almost tearing up himself.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
