The county’s first major wildfire of the season is out. That’s a win for fire crews working with the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
Cooler temps and some snow helped 164 personnel – including 100 from out-of-state teams – contain the flames.
“It was a good start to the [fire] season,” said Mary Cernicek, the forest’s public affairs officer. “Our efforts in readiness paid off.”
Crews completely contained the Spread Creek Fire near Flagstaff Road and south of Togwotee Pass as of early morning on May 19, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
It’s not that the fire season started earlier than expected. That’s always weather-dependent, Cernicek said. The agency starts talking about fire awareness as early as March.
But the fire grew to 257 acres within 24 hours last week after high winds whipped lightning strikes three miles south of the highway. It required an “aggressive suppression strategy,” Cernicek said, because it spread in tricky, timber topography with squirrely weather and dry fuels.
Scientists anticipate a gnarly fire season as much of the West faces drought. It’s hard to say if BTNF’s swift response is a sign of institutional strength despite last year’s cuts to the forest service.
In 2025, the U.S. Forest Service lost a reported 16% of staff following mass firings, buyouts and restructuring under the Trump administration. It’s unclear how deeply those cuts impacted firefighting as the administration reported to preserve “operational firefighters” and that it is close to its goal of firefighters for the year. Last year Congress made temporary federal firefighter pay bumps permanent.
Some Democratic congresspeople are raising concern to forest service leadership that less staff in general will mean firefighting suffers this year. Cernicek said she could not comment on the strength of local firefighting efforts in the context of cuts.
But Bridger-Teton crews were poised and ready last week. No drawdown on the firefighting resources meant quick mobilization. As of Tuesday, local crews are still putting out hot spots.
