Containment increases as Nebraska wildfires surpass 800,000 acres

Four ongoing Nebraska wildfires have now burned more than 800,000 acres across the state, but firefighters continue to make progress containing them.

Burn estimates for the Morrill Fire in western Nebraska’s Morrill, Garden, Grant, Arthur and Keith counties grew significantly since Tuesday, spiking from 572,000 to 642,000 acres, though Rob Powell with Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team One said the increased figure is largely due to improved mapping that was able to fill in some of the gaps that were previously marked as unimpacted.

“The Big donut hole that was in there was due to not having appropriate mapping products,” he said. “…In all divisions, here the focus is going to be patrolling those fire line edges. There’s a red flag today so any little piece of heat that’s decided to skunk around and find some receptive fuel, gets a start close to the line, with the red flag conditions and the winds that are forecast, and the warm air and dry air that’s coming, anything that starts is something we’re really going to have to pay attention to.”

The Cottonwood Fire in Lincoln and Dawson counties has now burned an estimated 131,229 acres and is around 40% contained.

Significant progress was made on the Road 203 Fire in north-central Nebraska’s Thomas and Blaine counties, where the fire was reported Wednesday morning to be 76% contained and has burned 35,913 acres.

Officials shared an update on social media, saying firefighters were continuing to make steady progress.

“With a decrease in fire activity and positive progress in containment, the Road 203 Fire complexity has lessened, and a smaller group of resources will begin managing the fire Thursday morning,” the post stated. “Although there may be less of a noticeable presence of fire resources in and around the communities, fire managers will continually evaluate the forecast and expected fire behavior to ensure an adequate number of resources are staffing the fire.

The Anderson Bridge Fire, the smallest of the four tracked fires, was reportedly 60% contained and had burned 17,400 acres.

A red flag warning was issued for much of the state until 8 p.m. Wednesday with temperatures expected to reach the mid-70s, with wind gusts up to 25 mph and relative humidity at 20-25%. Temperatures will continue to climb the rest of the week, with potential record-setting heat for the month of March as temperatures near 90 degrees.

A grandmother from Arthur is the only known casualty related to the wildfires, and Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen declared a state of emergency last week for Morrill, Garden, Arthur, Keith, Lincoln, Dawson, and Frontier counties in response to the wildfires.