Fighting the RR 316 Fire

Multiple agencies respond to fire on outskirts of Hanna as residents evacuate

Around 11 a.m. on September 5, a few Hanna residents noticed smoke on the railroad tracks not far from the Hanna Basin Museum. Probst Electric (Probst) employees saw a small fire and took their water trucks to douse the blaze. Hanna Fire Department quickly came and, a little after noon, the fire was under control

Hanna Marshal Jeff Neimark and Mayor Lois Buchanan were at the scene and were relieved the fire was not any danger to the town. They gave credit to the water trucks from Probst, a contractor working with Rocky Mountain Power, for helping make short work of the burning threat.

"Probst helped a lot with that fire," said Sam Sikes, a member of the Hanna Volunteer Fire Department.

At the nearby Hanna football field, the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Miners were playing a rematch of last year's championship football game with the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Rattlers.

This was the first game of the season and there was a large crowd to cheer both teams on, but smoke in the distance was getting attention from the fans by halftime. As the game went into the 4th quarter, several planes were buzzing overhead. When the game ended, there was an announcement that US 30 between Hanna Junction was closed and that WY 72 would have to be used if heading back towards Rawlins.

The wind started to get stronger as the afternoon continued and, around 2 p.m., Niemark was telling the residents of western Hanna evacuation was recommended, but not mandatory.

Many residents heeded his advice.

More planes, ranging in size from small twin engines to tankers, were coming and dumping water and retardant and remaining residents were seeing smoke encasing the atmosphere. The planes would disappear into the haze.

"A million dollars was spent bringing those planes in," Sikes said.

Buchanan said each run of retardant cost $45,000. Sikes said he saw about 15 runs of planes dropping the pink fire resistant solvent.

The fire was growing and more emergency services flooded into the town. Law enforcement from Wyoming Highway Patrol, Carbon County Sherriff's Department and fire departments from other towns and counties converged on Hanna to help.

"I think just about all of the fire departments from southeast Wyoming were present," Buchanan said.

Ron Brown, Carbon County Fire Warden, said he had 26 people helping from Bureau of Land Management, 40 from the United States Forest Service, 84 from Carbon County and 24 from Wyoming State Forestry Division.

Lenny Layman, Carbon County Emergency Management Coordinator, arrived in Hanna and established communication for the Incident Commander in the early afternoon. A trigger point of the fire reaching a certain location was established. When the fire hit this trigger point, the town would be given a mandatory evacuation. The fire reached the trigger point at around 4 p.m. and the order was given to evacuate the entire town.

Layman had reached out to American Red Cross (Red Cross) and his counterpart in Albany County to have the residents come to Laramie and get shelter. Layman said seven hotels participated. Red Cross met evacuated residents in the Walmart parking lot due to its size. There was also a hotel in Rawlins that gave shelter.

About 200 residents found shelter in the hotels along with 100 pets.

The command center was set up at the HEM High School parking lot and, according to Buchanan, there was no spare room in this huge area.

"I don't know how we are going to be able to thank everyone that helped us," Buchanan said. "The school district (Carbon County School District No. 2) gave us the school busses and even opened up the school later to help with the command center."

She said there were four out-of-state fire crews; three from Colorado and one from Oregon.

"The town of Medicine Bow came here with sandwiches and water for all the people helping," Buchanan said. "Sharon Biamon (mayor of Medicine Bow) said she had a sandwich brigade from residents and places like C-Spear and the Virginian. On the Rawlins end of it, people were offering their homes and offering to pay for hotel rooms. It was absolutely overwhelming."

Casey Lehr, Carbon County Sheriff's Deputy, was on his day off and was called to work. He had been in Rawlins and noted the penitentiary offered busses and personnel to help. He said Casey Shinkle, manager of the Rawlins Best Western came to the scene with a vehicle full of water and other supplies.

"With our department and other law enforcement, it was all hands on deck," Lehr said. "And many people were helping in any way they could."

By the time of the full evacuation, WY 72 was closed because the fire had jumped US 30 and was burning towards Elk Mountain.

That wasn't the worst. The fire was making its way to the Hanna water treatment plant and to two churches that sat right on the western corner of Hanna.

Heavy equipment blades were brought in by Probst to create a firebreak. Probst also supplied eight water trucks that were in constant motion.

"I am not sure what would have happened if the Probst workers and equipment hadn't been here," Buchanan said. "I went to thank them after the fire was under control and they were thanking me for letting them stay in our town. They are welcome in Hanna, that is for sure."

The fire was held at bay a couple hundred yards from the churches. It did slightly enter the Hanna Cemetery, but did minimal damage. The water treatment plant was surrounded by flames but, in the end, it remained unscathed.

"I think it was one of the planes dumping water that saved it," Sikes said. "It would have been a bad situation if it had been damaged, or worse, burned to the ground."

The wind was still treacherous with its unpredictability, but the fire seemed to be no danger to the town as midnight came to pass.

It was hoped residents would be able to return at some point the next day.

At 1 p.m. on Sunday, the town was open to its residents. Power had been shut off on Saturday, but was back on, and the water was fine. In fact, many residents had left their sprinklers on and, when they returned, the water was still flowing. A condition of returning was to shelter-in-place. This kept residents off the streets and safe inside their homes.

The command center at the high school scaled down as the fire became more contained. Scorched earth was there to greet returning residents at the Hanna junction of WY 72 and US 30.

Still, the town was spared.

"I can't say enough good about so many people," Buchanan said. "Jeff (Neimark) was on top of so much from the very beginning. Lenny (Layman) was amazing with how handled his position. The way he handled people, was like he was wearing kid gloves. He really cared about helping people and it showed. Ron (Brown) supervised the fire containment in an excellent manner. There were so many moments I was just thankful to have the people help that we did."

One problem for the town concerning information being available was that when the computers were stored in a vault around 2 p.m., there was no access to the town's facebook page.

"We tried to use our personal devices to get on the account, but they couldn't get access," Town Clerk Ann Calvert said. "Our website is still under construction and, with our tech not being able to get on Facebook, there was no way to put out updated information."

This led to a lot of rumors according to Buchanan. She said there were reports of deaths, structures destroyed and a fire truck burned. In reality, no structures had been on fire and there were no deaths, although firemen Sikes and Basil Phillips were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation. A fire truck did stall out, but was not burned.

"Rumors during a time like this do nobody any service," Buchanan said. "People should think before they start communicating things they don't know about."

Buchanan remembers three distinct moments in the fire that affected her.

She said the first was gut wrenching.

"When they put out the full evacuation order, that hit home real hard," Bucanan said. "Because I now understood the town was really in imminent danger. When Jeff and I went up the Catholic church and saw how close the fire was, I thought to myself, 'Well here it is.'"

Another moment she remembers well is when she saw the staging at the high school.

"To see that many people come together was awesome," Buchanan said. "It was staggering to me that all these people were here in Hanna to save the town. It was a special moment in a terrible situation."

Her third moment was a quiet one.

"When everything had settled down that night, it was quiet and I could see the glow in distance," Buchanan remembered. "It was really quiet and dark and the moment was surreal. It was a private moment of feeling that I was witnessing the end of a battle that would hopefully end the war."

Both Layman and Buchanan stressed their overriding concern was the safety of the residents and the people helping fight the fire.

Buchanan said the fire is still under investigation. There are several stories going around but nothing has been determined.

The fire ended up burning over 14,000 acres before it was contained.

The mayor of Hanna is humbled by all the effort that taken to save the town.

"I can't say thank you enough to all those people who came to assist us for all the support and help. I have to figure out a way," Buchanan said. "I pray we never have to go through something like this again, although I think we would be so much more prepared. There is nothing I can criticize about how the fire was fought and the response to help the town. Absolutely nothing."

 

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