The town of Monument still stands, thanks to the efforts of firefighters and locals in battling the nearly 40,000-acre Boneyard Fire that was threatening the town Monday night.

The Grant County Emergency Management Office put out a Facebook post around 7 p.m. Monday, July 22, urging Monument residents to evacuate the town due to the growth of the Boneyard Fire, which was bearing down in the town of fewer than 150 people. Firefighters then sprang into action, stopping the fire along Top Road and Highway 402, just about a quarter-mile outside town.

Locals with their own equipment volunteered along the fire line, working alongside firefighters to protect the town and its buildings.

“It was a joint effort, and everybody worked really well together,” Monument Mayor Ron Ford said.

There were still locals out on Tuesday, July 23, helping with firefighting efforts and doing whatever they could to help their neighbors, according to Ford. While the fires threatening the town have largely gone out, they are still being monitored to prevent flare-ups.

“It mostly has burned itself out — there’s always going to be some hotspots here and there, and they’re mopping those up the best they can and monitoring those,” Ford said.

Ford stressed that Monument has not lost any structures due to the fire as of yet, again crediting the work of fire crews and locals in preventing those losses.

The Monument-based Columbia Power Co-op also earned praise from Ford for the efforts of utility workers in ensuring residents of numerous small towns in the region continued to have electricity in the face of the fire threat, fighting fires on their own power poles to keep the lights on in their service area.

The work fire crews and locals did saved the town of Monument, in the mayor’s view.

“That (fire) would literally devastate this town,” Ford said.

While Monument was spared the inferno’s wrath, fire risk still remains. The Level 3 “go now” evacuation notice was still in effect on Tuesday, July 23, and Highway 402 was still closed to local traffic.

“Of course we can’t mandatorily keep them out, but the highest recommendation we can give them is ‘please don’t come back until we can make sure every person and every structure is safe,’” Ford said.

Ford cited an area to the north that hasn’t had any of its grasslands burn yet as a potential avenue for the fire to again threaten the town.

As word spread that Monument was under imminent threat from the fire, Grant County residents were directing their thoughts and prayers toward the community on social media.

“We appreciate that,” Ford said, adding that Grant County becomes something of a large family when residents face these types of challenges.

“We’re in pretty darn good shape with everything we’ve been through,” he added.