Blaze flares near Wyoming resorts
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, July 25, 2001
Associated Press
JACKSON, Wyo. — Hundreds of people fled their homes Wednesday as a wind-fed wildfire swept through bone-dry timber a few miles outside this resort community.
The town of Jackson, with the Snake River between it and the fire, as well as Grand Teton National Park to the north, were not in danger from the fire, authorities said.
Authorities went door-to-door to warn residents of about 100 homes to leave as winds gusting to 25 mph pushed the flames closer. A Red Cross shelter was opened at the Jackson Hole High School.
"It’s making a strong run to the north-northeast," fire team spokesman Tim Sexton said of the blaze.
The fire six miles southwest of Jackson has burned about 1,400 acres since it began in a popular camping area Sunday. It was only 10 percent contained Wednesday, with no rain in the forecast.
Jackson’s subdivisions include about 170 homes nestled by the river or tucked higher up in the heavily wooded mountains. The homes, valued from $500,000 on up, include one owned by celebrity trial attorney Gerry Spence.
Longtime residents say the forest in the area hasn’t burned since the 1930s, allowing dense brush to build up and increasing the chances of an inferno.
Late Tuesday, fire incident commander Joe Carvelho warned residents to pack their belongings and be prepared to leave within 15 minutes.
Pat Opler, who lives in a 23-year-old log home with a living-room view of the river and the Teton range, had two pickups loaded and ready to go.
"When you live in the mountains, you have to prepare for these sorts of things," Opler said. "We were up to about 1 o’clock in the morning loading all our valuables: photographs, paintings, artwork, guns, fishing tackle."
Neighbors Dick and Tami Albrecht took most of their valuables to his home design office in Jackson, including their 19-pound cat, Zambini.
Dick Albrecht, a former CBS-TV producer who moved to Jackson from Los Angeles in the 1970s, used sprinklers to water the roof of his 5,000-square-foot wood-frame home, which rubs against dry stands of lodgepole pine, aspen, blue spruce and Douglas fir.
Other residents used chain saws and pruning shears to trim tree limbs away from their homes and raked up tinder-dry pine needles.
The Forest Service has marshaled 615 firefighters, nine helicopters, seven air tankers and a team of fire managers to fight the blaze. The fire is the top firefighting priority nationally, meaning as much manpower and equipment is being funneled to it as the fire managers want.
Others with houses in the Jackson area include Vice President Dick Cheney, film stars Harrison Ford, Sandra Bullock and Heather Thomas and World Bank President James Wolfensohn. None of their homes is threatened.
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