Cool, still air helped fire crews keep the Cato fire in Northeast Wyoming from spreading too much overnight.
The Wyoming State Forestry Division reports the blaze in Sheridan and Johnson counties grew about 700 acres since Wednesday evening to just under 26,000 acres. Johnson County Fire Chief Wes Johnson says that growth was toward the east.
No new structures are being threatened, and no injuries have been reported.
Officials say the fire is now 100% contained as of Thursday evening.
A thick haze has descended on Sheridan as several large wildfires burn throughout the state. But one blaze in northeast Wyoming poses a particularly dangerous threat.
Spreading Tuesday night into Sheridan County, the lightning-caused Cato Fire covered roughly 25,000 acres of rangeland between Buffalo and Clearmont as of Wednesday evening.
"This morning it was cool and calm, the winds had laid down," said Fritz Bates, fire chief for the Clearmont Fire Department, on Wednesday. "Now the temperature's coming up, the winds are changing, we're starting to get some runs."
Several fire agencies, including Clearmont, are trying to stop those runs with a total of 16 engines, 9 earth-movers, a couple aircraft and 50-or-so firefighters.
But Bates still worries flames could jump the fire line.
"There's a pretty good chance of that," he said, "if the winds pick up and push the right direction; look at the run it made yesterday."
One of the biggest challenged crews are facing are variable winds. Since they can't predict where the air currents are going to go, they can't predict where the fire's going to go, and they're left playing catch-up.
"'What can we do to help? What can we do to help?'" Everybody wants to help," said Judy Penn, a Clearmont resident for the last 22 years.
She's helping organize volunteers to make food for firefighters at the Clearmont Community Center.
"We've got so many donations of food," she said, "and everybody's bringing stuff and dropping it off."
Some people drop off stories instead of food: One of her neighbors lost two pastures already and can't get to them to find out how their livestock are doing.
Crews also evacuated around 30 houses on Thompson Creek Road Tuesday night.
They're stories of uncertainty, but Penn said they're met with reassurance.
"It's a small community, but they all pitch in."
Foresters have confirmed several small structures, like barns and sheds, have been lost in the fire, but nothing major.
Bates estimates it'll take about a week to get the fire mopped up completely.
