Ryan redoubles

High winds, dry weather and ample fuel led to a massive increase in the Ryan Fire across both the Wyoming and Colorado border over the weekend. The increase was, in fact, predicted by members of Rocky Mountain Team Black (RMTB) during a public meeting held at 6 p.m. on Friday at the Grand Encampment Opera House.

RMTB Incident Commander Mark Hatcher was joined by fellow RMTB members Darron Williams, Operations Section Chief, and Shawn Jacobs, Incident Meterologist, as well as Carbon County Deputy Fire Warden Ron Brown, Assistant State Forester Josh Van Vlack of the Wyoming State Forestry Division and Jason Armbruster, District Ranger of the Brush Creek/Hayden District.

Following an introduction from Christopher Barth, Public Information Officer for RMTB, Williams started the public meeting by informing those gathered the approach the Type II team had taken to the Ryan Fire.

"What we've done with the Ryan incident is, we've divided that up into what are called divisions. For this particular incident, we've got four of those divisions," said Williams.

Those divisions, as seen on maps released by RMTB, are Divisions Alpha, Echo, Sierra and Whiskey. According to Williams, Division Alpha has been tasked with attempting to delay the fire from consuming a timber sale on property owned by the State of Wyoming while other divisions had been instructed not to engage directly with the fire.

"Overall, we've been given the intent to have our firefighters not go in and engage directly with the fire. One of those reasons is for the safety of our firefighters. Of course, the reason why we're saying that is because of the fuels that are up there," Williams said.

Following several years of the beetle epidemic, lodgepole pine in the national forests has provided plenty of fuel for wildfires to grow and move quickly. Another factor, according to Jacobs, is the lack of precipitation in the area.

"In the region, we've been seeing, 11 out of the past 12 months, precipitation deficits across North Central Colorado and South Central Wyoming," said Jacobs. "The largest precipitation deficits are at the times when we really need that moisture, so that's what's kind of led to a lot of these conditions we are currently seeing."

Jacobs further explained how high temperatures, along with unstable atmospheres and low humidity, contribute to fire growth. The incident meteorologist pointed to a matrix he provides the firefighters and members of RMTB on a daily basis. On Friday evening, the matrix showed the following two days, Saturday and Sunday, to have the possibility of "extreme burning conditions."

On Friday, the Ryan Fire had burned approximately 2,986 acres. That number would nearly double in size on Saturday as the fire increased to 8,685 acres and would double again to 19,328 acres as of Sunday night and Monday morning. As the fire continued to burn, it also continued to move northeast and towards Big Creek Ranch and Skyline. This increased risk led to the Carbon County Sheriff's Department issuing an evacuation of the area.

Following the dry and windy weekend, a storm finally moved in Sunday evening to add some moisture to the area. The much needed rain helped firefighters along the northeastern edge of the fire as it slowed the rate at which it was burning allowing authorities a chance to begin establishing containment of the fire.

Despite the rain, it was predicted by Jacobs on Friday evening that no major system was present in the climate models at the time that could bring an end to the fire. The incident meteorologist expected that the fire would continue for another 20 to 30 days and information on Inciweb has the tentative containment date of the fire as Oct. 15.

UPDATE: As of Sept. 25 the fire has been 30 percent contained.