Single Publication

Road 702 Fire Update
Wednesday, April 27, 2022 

Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team One
Dan Dallas, Incident Commander  

Road 702 Current Situation:  

Firefighters continued to make progress on containing the Road 702 Fire despite critical fire weather yesterday.  Shifting winds and gusts 30 – 40 mph caused the fire to spot in two places outside of the current perimeter. Due to good coordination between firefighters and local landowners supported by National Guard helicopters doing bucket drops, both spot fires were quickly caught and tied back into the main fire.  There was no change in acreage on the fire from the previous day. 

As containment continues to increase on the Road 702 Fire, excess resources will be demobilized to return home or be reassigned to other incidents.  On portions of the fire where containment has been achieved, firefighters will continue to mop up and patrol the fire perimeter to ensure that no hot spots remain that could pose a threat.   

Branch I (North and West side)- Today firefighters will focus on the section of uncontained fire edge that is south of US-6 (east of Bartley), along the Republican River. Crews will continue to establish containment lines and cool down hot spots within the timbered draws.  Heavy equipment will be used, as necessary, to remove trees that pose a hazard to firefighters in this area.   

Branch III (East and South side)- The portion of the fire in Kansas has been contained.  Two areas of uncontained fire edge remain in this Branch.  Firefighters continue to work on the finger of fire, south of Wilsonville, which still contains several hot spots.  On the north end of this Branch, south of US-6 (west of Cambridge), there are still several areas of heat near the Republican River.  In addition, heavy equipment will be used to create fireline around unburned islands of vegetation within the fire perimeter.  Securing the islands lessens the risk of fire escaping containment lines.    

Weather:  Elevated fire weather conditions are expected today. Very warm temperatures along with continued low relative humidity is predicted, although winds will be lighter than previous days. As an upper system pushes through, moisture will begin streaming into the region later today with a slight chance of a thunderstorm after 6 pm. Any thunderstorm would result in lightning and gusty, erratic winds. 

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.  

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: 74%
Total Personnel: 208
Location: Red Willow, Furnas and Frontier Counties (NE); and Phillips and Norton Counties (KS)
Reported: April 22, 2022
Injuries to Date from Initial Attack: 5  

For More Information on Road 702 Fire:
Fire Information Phone: 402-327-1511
Fire Email: 2022.nebraskaspring@firenet.gov
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nema.page
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NEMAtweets
Inciweb: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/8081/