Casper fire gaining strength

A fire on Casper Mountain is estimated at over ten thousand acres and it continues to grow and residents are being asked to evacuate at a moments notice.

Public Information Officer Bob Fawcett says over 500 people have been evacuated due to the  and they are now fighting the blaze both on the ground and through the air.  Fawcett says the blaze is gaining in strength.

“The fire is increasing in size.  We have a pretty intense fire due to weather and we are expecting a storm front to move through any time now with possible 60 mile and hour wind gusts that’s going to really hamper our firefighting efforts.”

The area that is burning is just south of the city of Casper.   Fawcett says they are having a lot of trouble with weather conditions.

“That’s been the biggest thing is that the wind is blowing and we are having issues with weather.  But we are getting better resources in here and more units in here and hopefully we will have a handle on it soon.”

The National Guard and another incident command team is helping to fight the fire from the air and ground.