Meeker resident Bob Tobin noticed smoke as he was pulling into his driveway near the top of Seventh Street Friday, Aug. 14. “I thought, ‘well, that can’t be good,’ and ran up to check it out. I was the first one on scene at the fire,” he said. He called it in, and then tried without success to stop some of the fence post rails from burning, without success. “It just kept coming back.” Soon, several trees caught fire, sending up a cloud of black smoke visible across town. WREA cut power to some areas at this time.
Tobin ran back to his house to get his camera. By the time he got back up to the scene, Meeker and BLM firefighters were working the area. “I was really impressed with them. They really took control of the situation.”
Within an hour, the blaze was under control and the power was back on. Final acreage is TBD, as is the cause.