Grass fire
What started as a small grass fire on the hills north of Pole Creek Road quickly escalated into a serious fire that threatened homes near Pinedale on Thursday.
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Flames near town
Strong winds pushed flames west towards homes north of Pinedale. Photo by Dave Bell.
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Close to homes
The fire burned perilously close to the homes in the Favazzo, Charmichael Hills and Orcutt Hills subdivisions just north of Pinedale. Firefighters kept the flames on the south side of the Fremont Lake Road (left side in this photo).
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Burned to road
The fire burned to the south side of the Fremont Lake road, right up to private property. Firefighters kept the blaze from going over to the north side of the road.
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Jumped the road
The fire crossed Skyline Drive and burned on the east side of the road that goes to Lakeside Lodge and the summer homes.
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Lakeside Lodge road
This is where the fire crossed over to the north side of Skyline Drive. This is the intersection of Skyline Drive and the Lakeside Lodge road, as seen on Friday morning after the fire. Many fire crews were out on patrol and doing mop up.
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Homes at risk
The fire quickly approached homes in the Favazzo, Charmichael Hills and Orcutt Hill subdivisions. Residents were told to evacuate and had only minutes to decide what to grab and what to leave as the wind shifted and drove flames towards their homes.
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Burned fire signs
These burned signs were located at the road junction to Lakeside Lodge and the Fremont Lake campground. View from the junction looking south. Pole Creek valley and road are a mile or so behind the hills in the background. The signs read "No campfires. No charcoal grills. Stoves OK". It is believed this fire may have started from a spark from a transformer on a power pole on the Fayette Ranch.
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Back burn
Firefighters did a back burn along the south side of the Fremont Lake road to create a black line to stop the fire approaching subdivisions. This is between the homes on the south side of Fremont Lake Road and the Fremont Lake overlook, as seen on Friday morning.
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Fire crossed road to lake
View Friday morning looking east along the lower Fremont Lake Road just after the Lakeside Lodge turnoff. The fire crossed the road from the right (south) and burned north to the lake (a short distance away to the left out of this photo). The fire burned just east of the Sandy Beach Day Use area.
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Aftermath of the Pole Fire
by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online!
July 14, 2007
Editor's Note: More photos added July 16, 2007. Scroll to the end of this article for viewer comments expressing their feelings about this fire and how it impacted them.
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The Pole fire began on private land southeast of Pinedale Thursday afternoon, July 12, 2007. The fire burned in sagebrush and grass on the hills between Pole Creek Road and Fremont Lake Road. Crews quickly responded and a helicopter with a bucket was diverted off the Salt Lick fire to work on this blaze.
At first, the fire did not appear to threaten any structures and it appeared the crews and helicopter would be able to quickly extinguish the grass fire. However, winds picked up and quickly spread the fire over the ridge to the north in the direction of Lakeside Lodge and the Fremont Lake Summer Homes. It was also moving in the direction of the Forest Service Upper Fremont Campground.
Emergency crews scrambled as the threat of the fire seriously escalted threatening many structures and private homes north of Pinedale. One side of the fire reached the south side of Skyline Drive and crossed over burning towards Fremont Lake. Another side of the fire moved south towards homes north of Pinedale along the Fremont Lake Road.
The fire burned powerlines and poles in the Pole Creek area causing Rocky Mountain Power to shut down a circuit on the Pinedale substation, cutting power to around 1,100 customers in south Pinedale and the Boulder area.
The Forest Service issued mandatory evacuation orders for Lakeside Lodge, Fremont Lake campgrounds, Half Moon Lake campground, Elkhart Park and White Pine Ski Area. The Sheriff's Office issued evacuation orders for first the Favazzo subdivision, then broadened it to include the Charmichael Hills and Orcutt Hills subdivisions just north of town. All evacuation ordershave been lifted and people can return to their homes.
The fire quickly became the #2 priority fire in the United States for fire fighting resources. Four retardant planes were brought in, along with two helicopters. Every available emergency personnel came to assist. Many community members and businesses stepped in to offer help with the displaced people. Some people from Lakeside Lodge and the southern Fremont Lake area were led down the Pinedale bike path and a two track around the CCC Ponds to escape the approaching flames, until smoke and flames cut off that escape route. The others caught east of the fire were taken to the boat ramps and boats used to evacuate people from campgrounds and Sylvan Bay summer homes.
Winds turned the fire towards Pinedale, lessening the threat to the Forest Service campgrounds and Lakeside Lodge. Those evacuees were able to be taken by vehicle on the roads and staged at the turnoff to Lakeside Lodge on Skyline Drive until they were given the all clear to be led by officials back the Fremont Lake Road back into Pinedale. That road was opened and closed several times as the fire shifted direction and dense smoke brought visiblity down to zero.
The scene was a fast-paced race of organized chaos as emergency personnel scrambled to evacuate people and move them to safety and stop the front of the fire. Dense smoke billowed over Pinedale and rolled through town. Pinedale was just beginning the first days of the four-day annual Green River Rendezvous Days and there were many visitors in town to add to the confusion of moving people to safety. The Type II Fire Management Overhead team that had just arrived to work on the Salt Lick Fire immediately switched to help with Pinedale's Pole Fire.
Shell Rocky Mountain Production opened up their building and resources in Pinedale to help. EnCana and Questar also pitched in offering resources. EnCana offered lodging at their Sand Draw mancamp for any displaced people. Visitors staying at local motels bunked together to create more room for anyone who needed a place to stay. Obo's in Pinedale offered to help with food. The Pinedale VFW offered their facilities. Triple Peak Lodge offered rooms for lodging. People displaced from Lakeside Lodge and the campgrounds quickly had several options for places to spend the night if they had to.
Evacuees were taken to the Pinedale High School and a database started for names contacts for people location. Frequent updates of the fire status were broadcast live by Bob Rule on Pinedale's KPIN 101.1 FM radio, as well as posted on this website. The Sheriff's Office and Forest Service put out regular updates to get information out to the public as best they could, which was an enormous task with the fast-changing emergency conditions. The biggest crisis was curious people driving up Fremont Lake Road to take a look at the fire, causing a huge traffic jam, which turned into a crisis situation when the winds shifted and emergency personnel needed to get people out. The Sheriff's office first closed the road at the Fremont Lake overlook, then moved the closure down to the Pinedale ballfields, then down at the base of the Fremont Lake Road by Faler's General Store.
Fire crews did wonders to protect all structures and keep the flames from moving off BLM onto private lands. They were able to keep the fire on the south side of the Fremont Lake/Skyline Drive road in most places, out of the subdivisions.
As if by a miracle, rain started falling from the sky around 10:00 PM greatly helping firefighters in their efforts. As quickly as everything began, the fire was brought under control and the crisis ended. The roads were opened and residents allowed to return to their homes. The power company got electricity restored to most residents Thursday evening, and the rest had power by Friday.
Wetting rains throughout the evening calmed considerably on Friday. Lakeside Lodge and White Pine Ski Area reopened, as well as Fremont Lake and Half Moon Lake campgrounds, and visitors and staff allowed to return.
Fire crews continue to patrol the fire perimeter to make sure all the hot spots are out. The cause of the fire has been determined to be "human caused". Unofficially, it is believed there may have been a short in a transformer that caused a spark which ignited the blaze on the Fayette Ranch.
COMMENTS:
“I am very emotional as you can imagine (that is my house featured in the Dave Bell photo of the burning ridge with the threatened home) and I just want to say thank you to as many people as I can. So I am sending this to Pinedale Online to try to reach every one that I should. It probably doesn't even make sense for your web site, but I had to send it any how. All the best:
Open letter of gratitude:
I can’t let another minute go by without writing to say thank you to every one of you that helped protect my home as well as my neighbors’ homes during last night’s fire along Fremont Lake Road. Without your efforts, I have absolutely no doubt that I would have returned this morning to ashes instead of my house.
When I was evacuated at 6 p.m., I was given a few minutes to take what I most wanted to take and then leave. If you haven’t even gone through this kind of experience, let me tell you first hand that it is very enlightening. What mattered to me were memories: the photo albums, framed photos, and important papers. Of equal importance were my cats (even though most every one thinks they are weird!). Once all of these were rounded up and in my vehicle to bolt down the road, I had to believe that every thing that was left behind was simply ‘stuff.’
Stuff is replaceable. Even homes are replaceable. But being able to come back home to all that ‘stuff’ inside my still-standing home was unbelievably dear, and this was able to happen because of the super efforts of our fire fighters on the ground and in the air.
From the deputies to the fire fighters, the EMTS and emergency management staff, the school personnel and the volunteers who so quickly offered their homes and corrals for evacuees and livestock, my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation. To every one that has been so supportive during this shocking time, thank you. What I most want to say is I am so lucky to not only be able to go home, but also that my home is in Sublette County." - With deep appreciation, Joanne Garnett, 164 Fremont Lake Road
She continues with:
"And many thanks to you for keeping us informed. I relied on your web site Friday morning to let me know what was going on. (That's when I also got the shock of seeing the photo of my house close to the flames!) Many thanks for all you do." - Joanne Garnett, Pinedale
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“Keep up the good work on the fire news. I am stuck in New Orleans for work. You are my only source of news from Pinedale.” – Pinedale resident
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“Thank you so much for the constant updates on the Pole fire. My husband and I used to live in Pinedale and still have many friends there. We were also volunteers on the fire department. I have been sitting here reading your updates on the fire, with a pounding heart, hoping and praying that everyone, the town and all of the structures would be OK. What a relief with your last update that it is raining in Pinedale. Thank goodness! I can go to bed and sleep tonight knowing that everyone will be OK. Again, thank you so much, it was a great comfort to be able to check the websites for constant updates!” – Laramie
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“A great big THANK YOU!! for your help this evening and to all the others I called! It's frustrating being in Rock Springs while fire rages in Pinedale in the area of our cabin. We're driving up Friday morning to see just how far the fire got! YOU ARE THE BEST!!!” – Rock Springs
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“Thanks for all the updates all night. Hope tomorrow is a calmer day for you all.” – Daniel
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“Just wanted to thank you all for your coverage of the Pole Creek Fire. The many updates, photos, and info was awesome. Our daughter and son-in-law are in one of the homes that was evacuated -- so between their phone calls and your updates, we felt like we were practically there! Excellent job. Thanks again.” - Powell
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Photos by Dave Bell and Bob Rule/KPIN Radio as indicated, rest by Dawn Ballou-Pinedale Online! For more of Dave's photos of this fire see the Dave Bell Pinedale Fire Photo Gallery.
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