Sheep Mountain Fire
September, 2004
Sometime in the afternoon on Friday September 10th, a lone bolt of lightning struck a tree near the top of Sheep Mountain. It took almost 24 hours for any signs of fire to appear! When the smoke was noticed by residents on the north side of the mountain, phone calls were made and city and rural firefighters were alerted and responded to the scene.
(Photo taken from Douglas, courtesy Terry Wills-Cathcart)
The first city trucks arrived at the ranch around 14:00, with the rural trucks right behind. We led the first trucks out to the 4x4 road which heads up Sheep Mountain, then turned our Unimog U1300L wild-land engine around and headed back for water from a reservoir.
Here are some photos from Saturday evening...
The fire calmed down after sunset when things cooled off a bit. The worst part of the fire was inaccessible by truck and the wind currents off of the mountain made a helicopter unsafe. It was decided to call up two teams of Smokebusters - firefighting inmates from the Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp in Newcastle, WY. They arrived the next morning.
Here are Sunday's photos...
Here comes one crew of Smokebusters, having walked from the bottom of the mountain fighting fire as they climbed. Our ranch hand Martin is leading them...
By late afternoon, things are looking up and there's time to rest...
Everyone's safely back down just before sunset Sunday night...
There are still some things burning in the middle of the black areas, so they'll be watched for a few days to come.
As a family, we wish to extend our greatest thanks to all who volunteered to fight this fire. The folks in the Converse County Rural Fire Department are great at what they do, and they really work hard with their lives on the line to protect others and their property.
We're also grateful for the Smokebuster program which allows Wyoming inmates to assist on these wild-land fires. We knew it existed, but had little intimate knowledge of it until now. It is a mutually beneficial thing, without which our 500 acre fire could have been much larger. Please have a look at their history at this external website...
Wyoming Department of Corrections Honor Conservation Camp