TORRINGTON— Seven local fire departments responded to a large grass fire on Saturday near U.S. Hwy.  26 between Torrington and Lingle, virtually in the backyard of the Wyrulec building. A social media post by the Torrington Volunteer Fire Department placed the fire on the 3700 block of Road 39J. 

The TVFD was the first department on the scene, but due to high winds the TVFD requested mutual aid from the Lingle and Veteran fire departments, and later departments from Ft. Laramie, Yoder, Lyman, Neb. and Morrill, Neb. were called into action. 

According to TVFD Chief Lance Petsch, the winds caused the fire to grow rapidly. 

“That was one of the big issues,” he said. “It was 26 m.p.h. sustained, with 30 m.p.h. gusts. 

“It just pushes them. If you think of the wind blowing 30 m.p.h. pushing a fire, it can push the fire 15 m.p.h. Trying to catch up to it, because of how fast the wind is pushing it, makes it really difficult. One of the biggest problems is that you have eight- to 10-foot flame lengths because of the fuel. The wind is pushing the embers out of that, and that can push embers 50 to 100 feet ahead, so then it starts leapfrogging and it gets bigger and bigger, faster and faster.” 

There’s no estimate on how many acres burned, but Petsch said the firefighting effort managed to keep the fire out of numerous houses and structures near the blaze. 

“It did not get into any structures,” he said. “There was something out in a field, but it didn’t get into any houses or outbuildings. We were good that way.”

Petsch said the TVFD did dispatch its structure trucks to nearby homes to take preventative measures. 

“The wind caused it to grow pretty quickly, and because of the structures that were so close, it presented a lot more of a hazard and made it more complicated,” he said. “We had to figure out where structures were and how to protect those. We had to give up some manpower from grass trucks to put our structure trucks in position to protect houses. That just makes it more difficult. 

“We sent some of the structure engines out. We put them in drives and started wetting the grass down, and as the flames got closer we could start knocking them down as they were coming.”

Because of the location of the fire – right next to a major roadway, with numerous back and side roads nearby – numerous citizens in vehicles stopped to watch the firefighters work. Petsch said he didn’t hear of any issues on Saturday, but said that can always be a concern in smoke conditions. 

“That’s always a concern when we’re trying to go up and down roads,” he said. “We had the smoke, and with bystanders out there it can become a little more dangerous.”