UNDATED (KELO-AM) The first satellite imagery of the massive Cottonwood Fire near Badlands National Park proves that one picture is indeed worth a thousand words.
"It looks like a hand that just kinda starts and moves out and gets wider and wider as it goes," Assistant State Wildfires Chief, Jim Strain, tells KELO Radio News.
And the sight from ground level, standing in the heart of the destruction, is just as terrible.
"As far as you can see to the east and as far as you can see to the west, is all burned," says Strain. He says this is one of the worst wildfires South Dakota has suffered in the last 20 years.
The fire charred 41,000 acres, killed livestock, deer and antelope, and destroyed fences and forage.
The massive fire is now out. Governor Dennis Daugaard has declared a emergency disaster in Jackson County, to free up moree state dollars to help in the aftermath. What makes this fire even worse is that authorities believe it was human-caused.
