Fire preparedness upgraded to highest level

With most of the nation now seeing significant wildland fire activity, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) has increased its fire preparedness level to a level five – the highest on the scale.

The decision has been made in response to fire activity already occurring, with a high potential for additional large fires to emerge.

At level five, all fire-qualified federal employees become available for wildlife response. National resources are heavily committed and additional measures are taken to support individual areas.

As of Tuesday, 69 large active wildlife fires were being managed across the U.S. and almost 1.3 million acres had been burned. Full suppression strategies were being used on 62 of the fires.

National resources including the hotshot crews, airtankers, smokejumpers and communications equipment are all heavily committed and the NIFC says it is coordinating requests for these resources. This includes an estimated 22,000 wildland firefighters and support personnel who are assigned to incidents, which in turn includes 20 complex incident management teams and six Type 1 incident management teams.

None of the 57 fires were burning in Wyoming, although the 47,827-acre Deadman Fire is located just over the border in Montana.

According to an NIFC press release, active areas are “intensively engaged” in prioritizing incidents and reallocating the resources needed to be effective.

It’s relatively rare for the fire preparedness level to reach a five on the scale. The ten-year average for the number of days per year at this level is 21; the longest time that the nation has ever remained at level five was 69 days between July and September, 2021.

In Crook County, fire season has been busy. Alongside the larger fires, such as the Ridge Fire earlier this month, a number of smaller incidents have taken place.

For example, on July 16, a human-caused fire near Aladdin was brought under control at 3.7 acres, while the 0.1-acre Schlup Fire on July 14 was located ten miles south of Sundance and the R Ranch Fire, also 0.1 acres, was reported on July 13. On July 13, the Rotary Fire east of Aladdin was contained at 5.4 acres.