Governor Pete Ricketts has issued an emergency declaration for the Post Fire south of Crawford and Vista Trend Fire west of Gering, making more help available.
As of Monday afternoon, the Post Fire was listed as 50% contained at 5,446 acres and the Vista Trend as 100% contained at 3,000 acres..
The emergency declaration was issued Friday, the day after both fires began, but it wasn’t announced until Monday afternoon. With it, both fires became eligible for assistance from neighboring states as well as Nebraska.
Bryan Tuma, assistant director of the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, says sharing resources between 2 major fires less than 100 miles apart can be challenging and he’s glad the state could help.
Tuma says “effective coordination between multiple state agencies and emergency support functions has been crucial to implementing a cohesive response to the fires
Among the resources that came with the declaration was state Type 3 Incident Management Assistance sent to coordinate allocation and sharing of manpower and equipment between the two fires.
The Nebraska National Guard also sent several helicopters who flew numerous sorties on both fires.