Fire consumes second home this month

For the second time this month, fire has caused the complete loss of a home in Crook County. The blaze began on Sunday evening at a property on Sand Creek Road and, despite the efforts of county volunteer firefighters, it proved impossible to save the structure.

The scale of this fire was not as large as the one two weeks ago, because it was mainly contained to the structures on the property. At time of going to press, the cause was unknown and will be investigated in the near future, according to Fire Warden Doug Leis.

“It wasn’t a grass fire, it was something with the structure. Apparently something went wrong within the structure, though we don’t know exactly what it was at this time,” he says.

Firefighters were paged at around 7 p.m. and responses came from Aladdin, Sundance and Beulah. The majority of volunteers left at around 2 a.m., with some staying overnight to keep an eye on the scene.

“It was burning pretty good already by the time we got there,” he says.

“It was an unfortunate circumstance. With stuff that’s out in the county like this, it takes us a while to get there and it takes a long time to get more water out there.”

No casualties were reported as a result of the fire. The Red Cross assisted with immediate needs for two people who were displaced by the incident.

“We are starting to consider putting a burn ban in effect,” Leis says, cautioning that the Sand Creek area is not the only part of the county that’s much drier than usual at this time of year. The danger of fire is already significant even at this stage, prompting him to add discussion of a burn ban to the agenda of a special meeting of the county commission this Thursday.

In the meantime, in light of the conditions, he asks Crook County residents to pay special attention to their fire-related activities this spring. “People need to continue to be careful,” he says.