Moorcroft Leader - The Voice of the Community Since 1909, Serving Moorcroft and Pine Haven, Wyoming

JACKSON — A bundle of Mylar balloons tangled with power lines and created an electric arc that started the 255-acre Saddle Butte Fire, investigators confirmed Monday night.

The arc sent flaming materials flying to the ground, igniting dried grass below the power lines.

“Because the metal balloon, that tin foil balloon, was creating an arc it would drop sparks on the ground and that’s what started the fire,” Jackson Hole Fire/EMS Chief Brady Hansen said Monday.

The metal caused the reaction, as rubber balloons wouldn’t have caused the arc, Hansen said.

Jackson police, Jackson Hole...