The Remington fire started Wednesday August 21st, 14 miles northeast of Leiter, Wyoming. Since then, it has blazed through four counties and over 40 miles, scorching a total of 196,387 acres in Northeast Wyoming and Southeastern Montana.
Affected counties include Sheridan in Wyoming, Big Horn, Powder River and Rosebud in Montana.
As of August 27th, the Remington Fire is only 5 percent contained according to the Southwest Area Incident Management Team, but Rosebud County Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator Pat Dennis says recent efforts against the fire have been successful.
“We got it kind of contained on the Tongue River side. They did a lot of burnout operations along the tongue river road from Birney to Ashland so that really helped. It was a successful burnout as far as I know, nothing slopped out and started any more fires.”
Firefighters and private landowners continue to work day and night against the Remington fire.
“They’re trying to contain to those areas from Odell creek to Otter Creek and back to Tongue River. If they can contain it to those areas that are still burning pretty hot, then we’ll be pretty lucky.”
Fortunately, recent rains and cooler weather have aided containment efforts on the Remington fire. After it started last week, the fire exploded in acreage over the weekend. Pat said this was in part due to the hot and windy weather conditions.
“The lightning caused the fire and then the wind took over…it kind of creates its own weather once it gets to boiling good. It didn’t take long to come out of Wyoming and into Montana, there’s a lot of grasslands and pine hills in that country and once it got into that stuff It just took off.”
Birney area Rancher Jim Gilliland was fighting the Remington Fire at his neighbor’s house when it headed for his ranch.
“It traveled eight miles to my place in probably 59 minutes. It was coming through grass we had for fall and winter, you had eight- to ten-foot-high flames coming down the creek at 30 miles an hour. You didn’t have time to do much, and you couldn’t get in front of it anyway. “
Local ranchers have lost livestock, hay and infrastructure to the fire.
“It came on so fast that even the cattle and horses didn’t have time to get out of the pastures they just died right there,” Dennis says “Some of the ranchers lost all their hay, lost a lot of cattle, they don’t even know to the full extent yet until they can get out there, but it burned all the fences up too. It’s going to be mass confusion for a while.”
Many ranchers have been forced to euthanize livestock badly burned in the Remington fire. Jim Gilliland managed to salvage enough hay to feed the cows he has left, but he is worried about the labor costs to help replace the 28 miles of fence destroyed by the fire on his ranch.
“You’ve got to pay for fence materials, but it’s kind of tough when you won’t have any income from the calves you were planning on selling. The cost of labor is another pretty high cost. This country is hard to fence because it’s not big open flat country, a lot of it is pretty rough.”
Ranchers are asked to keep track of and submit a list of losses to Rosebud County DES Director Keith Raymond at 406-346-7968 or kraymond@rosebudcountymt.com. The Rosebud county cattlewomen in collaboration with the community foundation and local DES are accepting monetary donations at this link: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=QSGH3ZTLZRJ74&fbclid=IwY2xjawE7IyhleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHexsBKPPnYb-kjIvZtfLjVw5KVtDOlYCDuoAHP3G8WHfqaIvZkJsMfL5jQ_aem_boQITpbj5t0NtxpEflvx0g
Checks can also be sent to First State Bank in Forsyth: PO Box 379, Forsyth MT 59327 or the Rosebud County Cattlewomen Association, PO Box 965, Forsyth MT 59327.
For more information and ways to help Ranchers impacted by the Remington Fire as well as the producers in Wyoming’s Johnson and Campbell Counties House Draw, Flat Rock or Constitution fires, visit: https://www.northernag.net/relief-efforts-underway-to-support-producers-affected-by-wildfires-in-wyoming-and-montana/
Brett McRae – Northern Ag Network
Photo Credit – Pat Dennis
