WICHITA MOUNTAINS_Firefighters
from the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge are headed to Colorado. The state is seeing their worst
wildfire outbreak in 10 years. At least half a dozen fires are burning in Colorado currently.
Officials said more than 250 homes have been destroyed by one fire near Fort Collins which has
been burning for more than two weeks.
Assistant Manager
Jeremiah Phillips said when they got word of the brutal fires in Colorado he was
instantly reminded of the fires his own crew had to put out last summer. He
said he didn't think twice about going.
"It's very
hard for any one station to have enough people to be able to respond to a fire,
especially with the conditions they have. They and other folks came and helped
us last year so we tried to return the favor."
The Wildlife Refuge
sent a team of four from their department to help battle the blazes at the Alamosa
Refuge. With thousands of acres burning, it's a lot to take on.
"Things
are pretty bad right now they are experiencing conditions basically what we saw
here in our area last year. Very extreme drought conditions a lot of bug kill
timber, the kind of situation that makes life really hard."
Phillips said
the conditions are so bad they even requested the Refuge Fire Department to
bring their own 900 gallon heavy engine to assist with the fires.
"It can
put out quite a bit. In a grass fire it can handle several hundred acres by
itself. In a timber fire it just kind of depends."
Phillips said
when fighting a fire of this magnitude relying on your brothers from other
stations is critical to containing the blaze. That is why he didn't hesitate to
send his men out.
"With our
conditions last year we had people from all over the United States including Colorado
that came and helped us when we needed it so in addition to the benefit to us
getting more training experience we're paying them back."
Phillips said
the men will return Friday, but then another group from the department will
leave for Colorado
that same day and stay for two weeks. They will continue to rotate men back and
forth from the state until it gets contained. He suspects it will last for the
remainder of the summer.
