Residents of Two Towns Ordered to Leave as Yellowstone Fire Nears

Winds threatened to drive a wall of flame through two small canyon communities bordering Yellowstone National Park, prompting authorities Tuesday to order residents to leave.

“We’re going to make every effort we can to save every structure and every home in these communities,” said Mike Warren, branch commander of the firefighting effort.

But fire officials, facing a forecast of southwesterly winds blowing up to 30 m.p.h., were not optimistic about holding back the 61,300-acre Storm Creek fire, which was two miles west of Silver Gate, the first town in its path.

“We have about a 25% chance of holding the fire out of these two communities,” said David Liebersbach, incident commander at Silver Gate.

Thirteen major fires have burned roughly a million acres in Yellowstone and nearby national forests in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

Park County commissioners declared an emergency and directed sheriff’s deputies to forcibly remove people from Silver Gate and Cooke City, three miles to the east.

“I’m sure they’re going to ask first, and if need be, they will force evacuations,” said Jim Hunt, the commission chairman.

“We’ve had good cooperation” from the area’s 150 residents, most of whom were gone by Monday night, Undersheriff Lee Keto said.

Deputies remained behind to protect property from looting, he said. “This community has more protection than it has ever had in its life.”

About 75 fire trucks were stationed in the two towns, some from as far away as Upstate New York and Northern California. The trucks protecting town buildings were manned by 250 firefighters, in addition to some 1,200 firefighters battling the fire itself.

Elsewhere, a fire in parched grass and pine in central Washington exploded overnight from 160 acres on Monday to more than 25,000 acres Tuesday, sending firefighters fleeing.