Fire a concern during holiday

While fire fuels haven’t dried enough to be a concern, residents are still being asked to be careful during the upcoming July 4 holiday.

According to Sweetwater County Fire Warden Mike Bournazian, the long, wet spring the county experienced has contributed to additional grass growth.

“What this means for us, is that in areas where we do not normally have a lot of grasses, we may start to see more grass on the ground that allows fire to spread much more easily and rapidly as grass burns very fast,” Bournazian wrote in an email to the Green River Star.

In many areas throughout the county, Bournazian said the brushes aren’t dense and gaps exist between brush clusters, which result in fires spreading more slowly unless a wind is spreading the flames. He said additional grass growth allows grasses to link flames to other types of vegetation, allowing fires to burn because of the continuous sources of fuel. Bournazian said the wet spring has resulted in more moisture in the ground, which delays the drying of fire fuels.

“This is what keeps things quiet as we enter into the summer months,” Bournazian wrote. “I do not expect the fuels to dry enough to really start carrying fire for another month or so.”

Bournazian said grasses will start to dry out in the next week, expecting sagebrush and juniper trees to dry enough to carry a fire by mid August. While he expects the potential for an elevated fire danger to occur occasionally in the next few weeks, he doesn’t expect a continual elevated fire danger to start until mid August.

“All this is of course is dependent on what Mother Nature decides to throw at us in the coming weeks and months,” Bournazian wrote.

Bournazian admits he doesn’t specifically predict a fire season or what it would entail. He said he and others look at historical trends, fuel moisture and predicted weather patterns to plan for what might happen, but can only be prepared and ask people to be cautious and vigilant while recreating. He said the local fire departments are joining forces in anticipation for multiple fires from fireworks, something the fire departments have done for the past four years.

Bournazian isn’t expecting a higher number of fires than previous years, but does ask residents to be considerate when lighting fireworks and to have a fire extinguisher or water hose nearby.

“Many of the firework fires we respond to are caused by careless actions of the public lighting off fireworks in dry grassy areas, where they have no business doing so,” Bournazian wrote.

For Bournazian, it only takes one fire to make it a bad fire season because only one fire can lead to catastrophic destruction.

“We saw this with the Roosevelt Fire in Sublette County last year,” he wrote. “That is why we prepare and train every day, year round and coordinate with our surrounding fire service partners and neighboring agencies ... It takes all of us to tackle large wildfires these days.”