GUERNSEY n A 10,000-acre wildfire on the grounds of Camp Guernsey's North Training Area was declared 50 percent contained Friday morning, after erratic winds on Thursday kicked the blaze up from 1,500 acres to 7,000 acres within an hour-and-a-half.

Known officially as the Tracer fire that was sparked by a live-fire weaponry exercise on Tuesday, the blaze is burning 12 miles north of Guernsey and four miles north of Guernsey Reservoir.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal and Maj. Gen. Ed Wright, Wyoming's adjutant general, toured the fire area Friday afternoon, with state forester Bill Crapser.

More than 250 military and civilian crews worked to control the fire, located west of Wyoming Highway 270 in Platte County. Crapser said local, state, military and inmate hand crews were at work on a containment hand line. The fire is being fueled by sagebrush, cheatgrass, pinyon pine and juniper.

Thursday, the fire was elevated to a Type II, or moderately serious fire, allowing the state to call in various regional fire fighting resources, including a Type II incident management team, led by Joe Lowe from South Dakota.

"If all goes well, we hope to have the fire 70 percent contained by Friday evening, with containment by Tuesday," said Crapser.

No injuries have been reported as a result of the fire, officials said.

Two commercial air tankers have joined the Wyoming Army National Guard's three Blackhawk helicopters and one Wyoming State Forestry helicopter in fighting the blaze. The helicopters are using 640-gallon sling-loaded buckets to drop water on hot spots.

National Guard spokeswoman Deidre Forster said a couple of old, dilapidated buildings had burned from the old Hauser Ranch n now the North Training Area.

On the Internet

National Fire News is at {M7http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html