PNP comment: Rural communities throughout the West are just waiting for the BIG fire. Because of over regulations by federal and state governments, forests are standing with as much as 10 times the “normal” amount of trees. They are too thick, too dry and just waiting for that lightning strike. — Editor Liz Bowen.
By Thomas Peipert
Associated Press
Published: Monday, June 11 2012 3:42 p.m. MDT
A fire that started in and/or near Guernsey State Park early June 9, 2012, is estimated at 1200-1500 acres. A unified command between the Bureau of Land Management and Platte County is in place. Air and ground support are on the scene. Structures, campgrounds, RV’s and power lines are threatened, but no structures have been confirmed destroyed. A shelter was set-up at the Wheatland 4H Building for those evacuated from the park and for locals who were evacuated last night.
The Glenrock Bird, Angela Eubanks, Associated Press
Summary
Massive wildfires in drought-parched Colorado and New Mexico tested the resources of state and federal crews Monday and underscored the need to replenish an aging U.S. aerial firefighting fleet that is needed to combat a year-round fire season.
BELLVUE, Colo. — Massive wildfires in drought-parched Colorado and New Mexico tested the resources of state and federal crews Monday and underscored the need to replenish an aging U.S. aerial firefighting fleet that is needed to combat a year-round fire season.
Wyoming diverted personnel and aircraft from two fires there to help with a 60-square-mile wildfire in northern Colorado. Canada also loaned two aerial bombers to fight the blaze following the recent crash of a U.S. tanker in Utah. And an elite federal firefighting crew arrived to try to begin containing a fire that destroyed at least 118 structures.
All told, about 600 firefighters will be battling the fire some 15 miles west of Fort Collins by Tuesday, said incident commander Bill Hahnenberg. “We are a very high priority nationally. We can get all the resources we want and need,” he said.
But Colorado’s House congressional delegation demanded that the U.S. Forest Service deploy more resources to the fire, which was zero percent contained and forced hundreds of people to abandon their homes. One person was missing.
In a letter to the Forest Service, Colorado’s congressmen said the need for firefighting aircraft was “dire.” Colorado U.S. Sen. Mark Udall urged President Barack Obama to sign legislation that would allow the Forest Service to contract at least seven large air tankers to add to its fleet of 13 — which includes the two on loan from Canada.
One of the region’s most potent aerial firefighting forces — two Wyoming Air National Guard C-130s fitted to drop slurry — sat on a runway in Cheyenne, 50 miles north of the Colorado fire. The reason: The U.S. Forest Service, by law, cannot call for military resources until it deems that its commercial fleet is fully busy. It also takes 36 hours to mobilize the crews and planes, officials said.
“They just haven’t thrown the switch yet because they feel like there are adequate resources available,” said Mike Ferris, a spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
Forest Service spokesman Steve Segin agreed.
“Right now, the fire manager on the incident feels that’s enough, that’s everything they need,” Segin said.
In New Mexico, firefighters got new air and ground support to battle a fast-moving wildfire that charred tens of thousands of acres and forced hundreds of residents to leave their homes in the southern part of the state.
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Jun 11, 2012 
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