Road 702 fire remains at zero percent containment, NEMA advises against travel

CAMBRIDGE, Neb. -- State officials are asking people to avoid affected areas as firefighters continue to battle the Road 702 Fire.

According to the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency Public Information Officer Jodie Fawl, there are many interior pockets of unburned vegetation within the Road 702 Fire perimeter. As winds shift or increase, NEMA officials say, these areas within the fire may burn. Residents in and around the fire area should expect to see flare-ups and smoke both due to these unburned islands burning as well as the intense heat that remains in the timbered draws. The threat of additional fire growth remains as firefighters continue to extinguish hotspots in brushy draws and near structures.

The public is asked to continue to avoid the Road 702 Fire area and to use caution when driving in areas with reduced visibility due to smoke and dust. As residents return to homes, they are asked to be cautious of surroundings as hazards may be present that did not exist prior to the fire.

Yesterday afternoon, the Multi-Mission Aircraft from Colorado mapped the fire area and current affected acreage is 41,155. Firefighters working the night shift patrolled the fire area watching for increased fire behavior and wind shifts that could threaten the current control lines.

Elevated weather conditions are forecast for Monday through mid-week, with near critical fire weather conditions expected on Tuesday. While winds will be lower Monday, 25 mph gusts out of the northwest coupled with low relative humidity will result in elevated fire weather through the afternoon. Winds will be light and turn southerly Monday night.

Wind-driven wildfires sweeping through parts of Nebraska killed a retired fire chief and injured at least 15 firefighters over the weekend.

66-year-old Jonathan Trumble was the second person in a month to die while fighting a wildfire in southwest Nebraska. Elwood Volunteer Fire Chief Darren Krull, 54, was killed in a collision with a water tanker on April 7 in Furnas County as smoke cut visibility to zero.

There are currently no evacuations on the Road 702 Fire.  By 10:00 a.m. CT, the Nebraska Forest Service said the fires in southwest Nebraska remained at zero percent containment.

 

Firefighters were taking advantage of higher humidity and calmer winds Monday to work toward containing the fire, officials said.

Jonathan Ashford, spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team, told The Associated Press that more than 80 firefighters, emergency management personnel and others were helping fight the fire, known as the Road 702 Fire. It had burned nearly 65 square miles in Red Willow, Furnas and Frontier counties by late Sunday.

Officials initially reported the fire was spread over more than 78 square miles of mostly rolling rangeland, but Ashford said aerial mapping Sunday gave a more accurate size of the blaze.

The fire that began last week has been fueled by tinder-dry conditions and days of strong winds.

More favorable weather Monday had firefighters scrambling to dig trenches and create other breaks along the blaze’s perimeter, Ashford said.

Fires have been reported in 14 Nebraska counties since Friday, including Perkins, Dundy, Burt, Butler, Scotts Bluff, Cheyenne, Duele, Blaine, Cherry, Brown and Thomas counties, leading some small towns to be temporarily evacuated. Those fires were either extinguished or mostly contained by Sunday.