Crews work to contain Road 702 Fire, donations pour in

CAMBRIDGE, NE — It’s taking a team effort to combat the Road 702 fire.

All hands are on deck from the Nebraska National Guard helicopter, to firefighters, to farmers. The Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team is now directing all those resources.

“Right now our biggest concern is we have an increase in winds coming in tomorrow that could potentially test the footprint of this fire as to where it is right now,” Public Information Officer Jonathan Ashford said.

Officials say the fire zone encompasses over 42,000 acres and, as of Monday night, is 47 percent contained. Ashford says crews are focusing their efforts on heat near the perimeter of the fire.

“That’s the area that’s closest to unburned fuels and vegetation," Ashford said. "We want to makes sure that we identify those area and do what we can with firefighters, fire engines, aerial resources such as helicopters to try to eliminate the heat in those areas.”

Firefighters needing to refuel and displaced families are coming to the Cambridge fire station. Donations poured in from helpful Nebraskans over the weekend to the point that local volunteers say they don’t need anything more.

“It just is amazing what our community can do," Volunteer EMT Kitt Callaway said. "We all said this is the heart of America and this is why we live here.”

Local volunteers like Callaway have relied on the donations since they’ve been putting in hours dating back to Friday afternoon. Many of them helped fight the fire close to the nearby community of Arapahoe two weeks ago.

“Arapahoe was something we thought was a once in a lifetime occurrence, that this was never going to happen again," Callaway said. "Now here, two short weeks later, we’re right back at it.”

Crews will be at it fighting the fire until it reaches 100 percent containment. They’ll be on alert until weather conditions improve.

“Unfortunately, we’re at a point now that even the larger vegetation is fairly dry, so it’s going to take quite a bit of help from Mother Nature for us to get back to where we should be,” Ashford said.