Thursday, August 30, 2012

Fire Controversy Brewing Between Ranchers and Firefighting Agencies

With budgets tight in one of the worst fire seasons on record; you would think that firefighters would welcome some extra help. Instead, a war of words has ignited and a local group wants to clear the air. “I jumped in that pickup and I was there within five-minutes,” said Hans Hayden. “And he brought the dozer over and went around it and so we put the complete fire out before anybody else got there.” It sounds like a typical story from a firefighter but these aren’t your traditional firefighters. For over 40 years, Hans and his brother have been teaming up with others in the Arbon Valley to form a ragtag firefighting unit like no other. Their services were called upon during the Charlotte Fire in which they helped save property and lives. The hillsides are dotted with burn sites that this makeshift fire squad extinguished long before traditional fire crews could even reach the area. But a recent fire on the other side of the mountain has these guys up in arms. “Jim Guthrie, who is a State Representative, went to the fire with a tractor and he could have helped,” continued Hayden. “The incident Commander didn’t want him there. They said they had everything under control but they didn’t know the area and so they didn’t know where they needed to protect some of the structures and it ended up burning up somebody’s haystack.” If you were to pass some of their vehicles on the street, you probably wouldn’t know that they double as fire trucks. Their fleet of vehicles are capable of dousing a blaze quickly and they can even setup a perimeter with a dozer but there are limits to what they can do. That’s why they want to grow their working relationship with agencies like the BLM...more

1 comment:

john said...

The Arapaho fire in
Albany County Wyoming started by lightning just into the Medicine Bow National Forest.The fire was noticed by a local rancher,He called the Medicine Bow Forest office in Laramie Wyoming to tell them that he had a tanker on his ranch, and could put out the fire.At this time it was less than an acre in size. He was refused permission to do what he wanted to do and the fire, which is still considered active, since about June the 7th, burned 98,000 acres.