Meriwether Fire

The Meriwether fire started about a week and a half ago and has burned about 7000 acres. It is burning mostly in the Gates of the Mountains wilderness area which totals about 30,000 acres. In one area, the fire was approaching the American Bar, which is a subdivision on the edge of the wilderness area and along the Missouri River. The Forest Service was only using air drops to try to contain the fire but on Wednesday night, it had moved close enough to the subdivision that our fire department was called out. Early Thurday morning we worked with the Forest Service and other volunteer departments and did a controlled burn to contain the southern end of the fire. There were approximately 24 fire trucks and two helicopters working the burnout and it went well with only a few small areas that burned over the line.





Today, the York Volunteer Fire Dept. was called back in to protect two houses while the forest service burned out an area between the subdivision and the main fire. The fire line was very close to the houses in this area so we set up two teams to catch any spot fires that might cross the line. We were only expecting small flame heights and mostly grass fire but by the time it reached us, a thunder cell came up and whipped up the fire.



The forest service and contract firefighters were also there to contain the fire.



Approaching fire:

I was running the Engine on the truck pumping water at the gray house and garage. The residents at this house stayed on their porch and watched. One of them took these pictures:

This blackhawk helicopter came in and dropped several loads at treetop level:

Everything turned out fine and neither of the houses were damaged. The owners may have an ugly view on the burned side but the lake view is still pretty nice:

Some of the York firefighters: