8,000-Acre Wildfire Threatens Casper, WY Subdivisions - NYT

[hatrack]

CASPER, Wyo., Aug. 15 — Thousands of residents were evacuated on Tuesday as a fast-growing wildfire, ignited Monday by a lightning strike, threatened high-altitude homes and populous subdivisions.

More than 8,000 acres had burned by early evening on Tuesday as the fire swept across Casper Mountain, a heavily forested peak of more than 8,000 feet just south of Casper. It is dotted with an estimated 800 homes, 150 of them year-round residences.

The fire then swept down the mountain toward subdivisions west of the city, which has about 50,000 residents, officials said. One mountain home had burned as of late Tuesday afternoon, and more than 300 were threatened on the mountain’s top and north slope.

As the blaze grew, officials announced that a federal interagency team was being rushed to the city to take over management of the fire. Federal officials could call in additional firefighters and equipment, both in short supply because 40 large wildfires and many smaller ones were burning across the country. “We need more aircraft and more people,” said Rick Young, a spokesman for the Natrona County Fire Protection District, which is helping to coordinate more than 200 city and suburban firefighters who are battling the blaze.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/16/us/16blaze.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[rzemanfl]

1. Isn't Wyoming part of Bushland? They get as much concern

from me as Katrina victims got from them. Oh yeah, I forgot, one cannot smear all the residents of a state. Please change to I hope the homes of people who are not Bushloving assholes are spared.