F.E. Warren members help fight brushfire in Wyoming

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jennifer Viveiros
  • 90th Missile Wing Public Affairs
F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. (AFNS) --  F.E. Warren Air Force Base fire and emergency services members responded to a brushfire two miles southwest of the base after a mutual aid request by the Laramie County Fire District March 31.

The fire began just before 1 a.m. and took two hours to contain through the combined efforts of the Warren Fire Department, Laramie County Fire Districts 1, 2, 8 and 10, as well as the Wyoming Air National Guard.

At about 2 p.m., afternoon winds caused a secondary flare-up, and the fire department was re-dispatched to extinguish the 700-acre blaze. The 37th Helicopter Squadron also sent a crew to provide an aerial view of the fast-moving fire.

The second fire took Warren, Laramie County and Guard firefighters three hours to put out.

Containing the fire would have been impossible without the combined efforts between the city and the military, said Dave Thompson, the Laramie City Fire Warden.

"We have 26,000 miles within Laramie County to cover and only nine fire departments, which are primarily volunteer-based," he said.

"The base and Guard assets are critical to us," he added. "They help with everything from fires, to medical care, to car wrecks; everything under the fire department arena."

"They are good people to have handy, that's for sure," Mr. Thompson said.

The F.E. Warren AFB fire chief said it's important for his units to assist the community whenever it can.

"Our mutual aid assistant program is great for the community and the installation," said John McDougall, the F.E. Warren AFB fire chief.

"We provide (the county) with extra manpower and resources with highly qualified and trained personnel to assist when the local volunteer departments have large-scale events such as these," he said. "It also allows us to put our training to the test, as we don't see a large number of fire events on the installation."

The initial cause of the fire is unknown. There were no injuries or structural damage reported.