From left, Lt. Jason Mitzel of the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office and Brandon Sanchez, incident commander for the U.S. Forest Service, address the media about the First Thunder Fire on Sept. 4, 2024, at the Forest Service’s Mystic Ranger District Office in Rapid City. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)
By: Seth Tupper
RAPID CITY, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) — A leader in the fight against a wildfire near South Dakota’s second largest city said Wednesday morning he’s less concerned, even as work to contain the fire continues.
“My comfort level is a lot higher now than it was yesterday,” said Brandon Sanchez, the U.S. Forest Service official who serves as incident commander.
The First Thunder Fire began Monday evening in a rocky and forested area cut by deep canyons in the Black Hills, several miles west of Rapid City. Since then, crews of local, state and federal firefighters have worked to keep the flames from spreading toward residential areas on the city’s western edge.
Investigators are still working to determine the cause, Sanchez said. The fire is burning an area of the Black Hills National Forest that’s mixed with parcels of private land. There have been no reports of injuries or damaged structures.
Some road closures remained in effect Wednesday morning, as did a flight restriction aimed at preventing drones and other aircraft from interfering with helicopters and tanker planes used by firefighters.
Authorities are asking those who live near the fire to stay prepared in case they’re ordered to leave, said Lt. Jason Mitzel of the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office.
“Right now we’re not doing any evacuations, and it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a need for any evacuations,” he said. “However, whenever there’s an incident like this, we always just ask people to be prepared in case that time may come.”
The estimate of the fire’s size Wednesday morning was 155 acres, only 5 acres larger than Tuesday’s estimate. About 150 firefighting personnel were on the scene.
Sanchez said firefighters have established a perimeter around the fire. The perimeter consists of earthen lines dug by hand or bulldozer, and also includes manmade and natural fire breaks such as roads and rocky outcrops. Tanker planes have dropped retardant chemicals ahead of the fire’s advance, and helicopters have dropped water.
Despite those efforts, estimated containment of the fire remained at 0%. That’s because fire remained close to the lines in some areas, and firefighters were working to knock those flames down. Sanchez said an updated containment estimate would probably be issued later Wednesday.
Weather remains a wild card. Clouds gathering Wednesday over the Black Hills were expected to bring helpful rain, but Sanchez said firefighters were also monitoring potential thunderstorms that could produce fire-fueling wind.
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