Elk Fire burns down six buildings near Dayton as residents fight to save their homes

Residents along the eastern front of the Bighorn Mountains tried to escape the 32,000-acre Elk Fire, which has burned six outbuildings, injured a firefighter and closed Highway 14 between Dayton and Burgess Junction.

The fire destroyed barns, outbuildings and other “non-primary residential structures,” Sheridan emergency officials reported Wednesday. The firefighter's injuries were not life-threatening, officials said.

The fire, discovered Friday, was pushed by red-flag winds and raced through a 15-by-6-mile swath of forested mountains and hills since it was ignited by lightning in the Bighorn National Forest. It has spread to the eastern side of the range and to some ranches and settlements east of Dayton, where about 900 people live.

Sheridan County emergency responders have issued evacuation notices to residents in several areas, while 200 firefighters are rushing in to protect homes and buildings in the area.

“It’s tough,” said Rick Clark, who lives in the mountains about 5 miles west of Dayton. “I've been awake the last two nights getting ready to get out of here.

“It just seems to be an eternal fire; “Every time the wind changes, it blows somewhere else, and then that area is evacuated,” he said. “It’s a whiplash deal – one minute it looks good, the next minute you’re in disarray, and then it goes the other way.”

Along the Tongue River Canyon southwest of Dayton, Cathy Wallace's husband, Mark, spent Tuesday night at the couple's home protecting the now-evacuated property.

“They stayed in the house all night putting out spot fires,” she said from a relative's home in nearby Ranchester, where the couple was evacuated. “I think the firefighters saved everything on our street for now.”

Twilight zone

“Holy cow, it’s dry,” Clark said in a telephone interview. “If you don’t water constantly, there’s nothing green here.”

He has a cargo trailer loaded with “a billion” instruments, sound systems and recording equipment from his earlier years as a musician. He is ready to go.

Combined with the smoke and charred hillsides, “everything looks like something from the Twilight Zone,” Clark said.

Towards Tongue River Canyon and Wallace Place: “It’s dark smoke,” he said. “It's burning pretty well,” although air raid protection and water droplets appear to have slowed the fire's progress there.

A dozen bull elk were near Clark's house. “What I’m hearing is that people are seeing a lot of bears coming,” he said.

Federal firefighters, acting as an emergency management team, arrive to monitor the fight and coordinate response efforts. Officials gathered the public in Ranchester Wednesday evening to inform the community of the situation.

The Bighorn National Forest has closed part of the federal reserve. Fire officials expect an increase in fire activity due to warmer weather, according to an update released Wednesday afternoon.

At Togwotee Pass

Far west at Togwotee Pass between Dubois and Moran, another team of 214 firefighters is protecting buildings from the Pack Trail Fire, which had grown to 18,774 acres as of Wednesday evening.

The Bridger-Teton National Forest and Shoshone National Forest have closed portions of these hills to ensure people's safety. Fremont County emergency officials expanded their evacuation notices and posted additional areas on the agency's Facebook page for residents to be prepared to evacuate.

The Pack Trail Fire is just a short distance south of the Fish Creek Fire, which previously closed Highway 26/287 over Togwotee Pass and forced residents to evacuate. Firefighters have contained 87% of the perimeter of the 25,325-acre fire that ignited on September 16.

According to Wednesday's updates, crews had not established containment lines around either the Pack Trail fires or the Elk fires.