Remember fire safety

By Tuesday most residents in Hot Springs County probably realized the smoke from various fires in the state had worked its way to us.

The biggies are the Fishhawk fire, which is on the North Fork near Cody, the Saddle Butte fire at Jackson Hole and the Pedro Mountain fire at Casper, east of Pathfinder Reservoir. Depending on wind direction, we could be having hazy days for days.

This, of course is the result of a beautiful, wet spring and temperatures that didn’t really reach the triple digits, but the air was definitely dry. Consequently, grasses are ready to go in an instant.

By all means, be very careful with fires of any kind, whether its while you’re camping or even in your back yard, but if you have any type of breathing problems, your best bet is to just stay home and stay inside if its smoky outside.

Please keep our firefighters in mind when you hear the whistle go off. Chances are, they’re heading to a grass fire somewhere in the county. Keep an eye out for them in your rearview mirror and get out of the way quick so they can get where they’re going safely.

The best way to keep up with the fires in Wyoming is on a government website dedicated to all the fires going on in the country. You can narrow the search down to just Wyoming fire activity and it will include when it started, how it started and how many acres have burned as well as the percentage of containment.

That website is called Inciweb and can be found at inciweb.nwcg.gov.

We’re definitely in those “dog days of summer” with the actual start of fall not arriving for another three weeks. Our mornings are chilly, by three o’clock it’s too hot and by bedtime, it’s finally the perfect temperature.