craigdailypress.com

Nancy McStay had a firsthand experience with the Divide Fire.

The fire, which burned 3,550 acres near Great Divide north of Craig on Thursday and Friday, devoured 2,500 acres of her hay and grass.

"It was burning very, very hot," McStay said. "Within

1 1/2 or two hours, it was burning in every direction."

McStay said a neighbors called to inform her of the fire on Thursday, when it was an acre in size. The fire was burning in the pasture that the McStays save for grazing 400 head of cattle in the fall.

McStay called law enforcement and when her husband, Mark, got home at about 11 a.m., he went right to work on the fire, trying to save what pasture he could.

With the help of a neighbor and a brother-in-law, Mark McStay began to make fire breaks with the tractor blade. Before long, the wind picked up, and the fire was not going to be stopped by their efforts.

Mark continued to make fire breaks until 2 a.m. Friday morning.

Nancy McStay said some farm equipment was caught in the flames, burning hydraulic hoses and exploding tires off the machinery.

There were times when she was ready to make a run for safety.

"I have two children, and an 88-year-old father-in-law, and the fire was about two miles from the house," Nancy McStay said. "I was prioritizing what to throw in the pickup."

McStay said that her husband has lived there for more than 40 years, and had never seen anything like the fire burning Thursday.

"The wind would change from northwest to southwest and smoldering areas would flare up," Nancy McStay said. "It was impressive."

She estimates the fire was burning a four- or five-mile-wide path west of the McStay home, and there were three or four fires going at one time.

The fire would travel faster up drainages filled with dry brush.

Mark managed to cut fire breaks around the stacks of hay already harvested, but they lost some hay that was still in wind rows out in the field.

The Bureau of Land Man--agement declared the fire contained at 6 p.m. Friday.

BLM fire mitigation specialist and spokeswoman Lynn Barclay said the estimated cost of fighting the fire was $40,000.

Tanker airplanes flying out of Grand Junction dumped 13 loads, totaling 9,000 gallons of fire retardant on the blaze.

The McStays' neighbor, Patricia Bush, said that she's lived there all her life and she's never seen anything like Thursday's fire.

"This is the first time in my lifetime that it's burned like that. It was way too close," Bush said. "If it had crossed (Moffat County Road) 17, we would have started packing."

The fire didn't cross the road, possibly because of efforts by her husband and his brother cutting fire breaks.

The Bushes' pastures were not lost to the fire, but Patricia thinks that some old farm buildings may have been claimed by the flames.

The problem now facing the McStays is finding pasture for their cattle to graze on in the coming months. Nancy has been placing calls as far away as Clark, but the summer has been so dry that everyone is having problems finding pastures.

Dan Olsen can be reached at 824-7031, ext. 207, or dolsen@craigdailypress.com.