TORRINGTON – Thursday, August 22, Torrington woke up to a smoke over the town. Due to the numerous wildfires throughout Wyoming, Torrington and surrounding areas saw effects. 

Up north, in Johnson County, the House Draw Fire and a few other, smaller, fires produced large amounts of smoke. This smoke is traveled south, and blanketed Goshen County. 

“It [the House Draw Wildfire] had a pretty big run yesterday (August 21), and overnight that produced a lot of smoke. Then we had these fairly light northernly winds overnight that caused the smoke to drift down south”, according to the National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists.

According to 307NetInfo, a Buffalo Area Facebook account, the fire was caused by lightning.  As of Thursday, the fire was about 163,000 or more acres with zero percent containment. There were 70 firefighters and numerous resources working to contain the fire. 

According to the NWS, fires can start for a variety of reasons. The spread of these fires can often be contributed to wind, local types of vegetative fuel, spotting of sparks and firebrands, temperature, humidity, precipitation, and topography. 

The Buffalo/Gillette area saw evacuation orders and road closures. Evacuation shelters were made available for people, pets, and livestock. There were no reported injuries but several threatened structures on Thursday. The local fire departments have received plenty of support in donations and they are not currently accepting anymore, reports indicate from the area. 

As for Goshen County, the only current affects were the air quality Thursday. The air quality is reported to be unhealthy for sensitive groups such as children, the elderly, those with lung conditions, allergies, etc. The condition of the air quality improved through Thursday afternoon according to NWS meteorologists. 

“We are seeing some improvements, as we head into the (Thursday) afternoon”, says the NWS meteorologist. “So, we opted not to (issue alerts), after collaborating with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, they will not be issuing an air quality alert because of the expected improvement this afternoon. The worst is most likely behind us with the wind shifting a little bit now.”

Although the skies are still smokey and cloudy, the conditions are expected to improve and there are no concerns locally besides the air quality for sensitive groups. Johnson County Public Health suggests limiting exposure to bad quality particles; However, Goshen County residents are not as directly affected.