Road 702 Fire Update
Tuesday, April 26, 2022 - 9 am
Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team One
Dan Dallas, Incident Commander
Special Safety and Weather Information:
A Red Flag Warning is in effect from noon until 8 pm today. Temperatures are predicted to be in the 70’s with winds from the south shifting south/southwest around 10 am. Winds are predicted to be 16-26 mph gusting to 28-40. Critical fire weather conditions will continue into Tuesday evening with winds gusting 20-25 mph through most of the night. Increased gusty winds may create low visibility in and around the fire area due to blowing dust and ash. Road 702 Current Situation: Additional resources have arrived from several surrounding states to assist with suppression efforts on the Road 702 Fire. The arrival of these resources has allowed firefighters from local volunteer departments to get some rest and reset with family after what has already been several weeks high fire activity. Incident Management would like to acknowledge the great work that was done by first responders. It is gearing up to be a very busy fire season, and we are honored to be able to assist the local departments.
Branch I (North and West side)- Branch I encompasses the area from Cambridge west along the fire edge and south to Lebanon, NE. The portion of the fire north of US-6, in Division A, has been contained. Firefighters will continue to patrol and mop up in this area and continue to strengthen containment lines. Along the west side of the fire, from US-6 south to near Silver Creek, firefighters continue to work on containment lines and cooling down hot spots within the timbered draws. Heavy equipment is being used to remove trees that pose a hazard to firefighters in this area. From near Silver Creek south to the Branch I/III break at State Highway 89, the perimeter has been contained and firefighters will continue to patrol and mop up.
Branch III (East and South side)- Branch III encompasses east and south perimeters of the fire from Cambridge south to Wilsonville and into Kansas. From the Branch I/III break at State Highway 89 south to Road 702, the fire perimeter has been contained. Good progress is being made on the portion of the fire that is in Kansas and containment on this section of the fire is expected soon. On the east side, the fire previously pushed out in several places creating fingers of unsecured fire edge. Direct and indirect fireline is being constructed to contain the fingers to lessen the risk of fire escaping containment lines. Firefighters will continue to patrol and mop up all portions of Branch III that have been contained.
Evacuations and Fire Restrictions: There are currently no evacuations on the Road 702 Fire. For information on fire restrictions in Nebraska, please visit https://sfm.nebraska.gov/fire-departments/burn-permits.
Note on Fire Size: Please note the decrease in acres from last night’s report. Last night we reported that the fire had increased by just over 1000 acres due to field verification of an area that had previously burned north of US-6. Fire acreage frequently fluctuates early in an incident as incoming GIS data is verified and cleaned up (i.e., smoothing out jagged and overlapping areas).
Other Fires in Nebraska: For information on other fires in Nebraska, please follow NEMA on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/nema.page or Twitter at: https://twitter.com/NEMAtweets.
Road 702 Fire Statistics:
Size: 41,448 acres
Containment: 47%
Total Personnel: 159
Location: Red Willow, Furnas and Frontier Counties (NE); and Phillips and Norton Counties (KS)
Reported: April 22, 2022
For More Information on Road 702 Fire:
Fire Information Phone: 402-327-1511
Inciweb: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/8081/
Fire Email: 2022.nebraskaspring@firenet.gov
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nema.page
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NEMAtweets
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