A series of lightning-sparked wildfires in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin sent authorities scrambling Wednesday and Thursday, as one fire outside Thermopolis exploded to burn across 20,000 remote acres.

That blaze, dubbed the Red Canyon Fire, drew an evacuation order from officials for an unknown number of rural homes in the area. The fire was burning in a very sparsely populated region of grass and scrub brush well east of Thermopolis itself, James Coates, secretary for the Thermopolis Volunteer Fire Department, told WyoFile.

A federal incident management team is en route to take command of the firefighting effort, Coates said, and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is currently in charge of the fire.

The Red Canyon Fire has drawn a significant airborne response, Wyoming State Forester Kelly

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