Ranchers in the Edgemont area said Friday they would like better communication with interagency wildfire officials when crews fight the blazes in South Dakota’s Black Hills. Sen. John Thune visited with firefighters and ranchers Friday in the corner of southwest South Dakota, where a blaze scorched almost 14 square miles of grasslands and timber, primarily on National Forest lands. Some ranchers said interagency officials ignored local expertise that could have helped crews battle the fire. “They feel like they have a lot of know-how,” said Thune, R-S.D. “They’ve in many cases lived in the area for generations and understand the terrain.” Edgemont rancher Mark Hollenbeck said locals at the fire’s onset tried to tell crews where roads were, and officials responded that there weren’t roads there because they weren’t on their maps. Hollenbeck said officials were planning to get ambulances out of Custer and didn’t know the much closer town of Edgemont had ambulances. “They didn’t talk to the local fire chief,” he said. “They didn’t communicate with the locals.”
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The Arapaho fire near Wheatland Wyoming which burned nearly 95,000 acres could have been stopped by a local rancher the first hour, but he was told not to interfere because he didn't have the "red card".
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