Today's Edition
(Agencies)
A fast-moving wildfire in Utah raced across the landscape overnight, fed by heat and dry wind and forcing more communities to evacuate, officials said Saturday.
Air tankers and helicopters were grounded on Friday as winds picked up on the Cottonwood Fire, the largest blaze currently burning in the US.
Gusts were clocked at 72 kmph and humidity levels were in the single digits, leaving crews with few options for slowing the flames, especially as they raced through the treetops.
The US Forest Service said in a statement on Facebook that weather conditions are expected to slightly improve, but not by much.
"Weather conditions are slightly better for fire behavior today, but extreme fire behavior may occur in the afternoon as temperatures and wind speeds increase,” the US Forest Service said on Saturday in a statement on Facebook.
No injuries or deaths have been reported, said Jaclynn Swope, a spokesperson for the response team.
The National Weather Service in March said Salt Lake City, Utah's capital, had the warmest winter on record with an average temperature of 40.7 degrees Fahrenheit (4.8 Celsius), nearly 8 degrees above normal.
Many other parts of Utah had warmer-than-usual winter. Burning in a sparsely populated area of southern Utah, the Cottonwood Fire ballooned Saturday to more than 144 square miles (373 square kilometers).
One of several large wildfires burning in Utah, it severely damaged the Eagle Point ski resort in Beaver County and forced campground closures in Fishlake National Forest.
In the community of Marysvale, the smoke blocked out the sun Friday as ash rained down. Officials warned of unhealthy air quality there and elsewhere.
"We’re looking at a full 48 hours of critical weather that we have not seen in Utah in the last five years,” meteorologist Jason Straub told a community meeting in Beaver County Friday evening.
Elsewhere in Utah, evacuations were ordered Friday for several small communities southwest of Salt Lake City, including in Eureka, with a population under 1,000, and the Vernon Reservoir area, officials said.
Highways running through the area have been closed. Two wildfires in that area - the Iron and Cherry fires - ran together overnight, and they are about 38% contained, according to fire officials.
The two fires combined are covering about 236 square kilometers. The smoke pushed mostly east, meaning air quality at popular vacation spots like Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks - located far south of the flames - hasn’t been significantly affected beyond some haze in the Bryce area. Still, the plume was visible from miles away, even as far as Colorado.
It's like nothing seen in recent memory, Utah state forester Jamie Barnes said earlier this week.
Nationally, nearly 3 million acres have burned since the start of the year, pushing the US ahead of the 10-year average.
Red flag warnings cover the West Conditions including low humidity and strong winds have triggered red flag warnings across a wide swath stretching from California to southern Arizona and New Mexico. Some of the forecasts predicted winds of 25 to 35 miles an hour (40 kph to 56 kph), with the worst conditions expected from northern Arizona into central and southern Utah.
At Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, officials were preparing for a power outage on Saturday. The utility that serves the area had warned that it would likely initiate a safety outage in hopes of lessening the risk of wildfire in the area.
Visitors will be able to purchase park passes at entrance stations as long as backup power systems remain operational, but park officials said visitors should come prepared.
With extreme fire conditions persisting, Rocky Mountain Power has issued a public safety power shut-off watch/warning for areas of central, southern and eastern Utah through the weekend.
While the Cottonwood Fire's cause was unknown, the governor’s order noted that humans have been the cause of most fires in the state so far this year. Even in Florida, where there have been multiple brush fires, authorities are urging people to skip the personal fireworks and instead leave the pyrotechnics to professionals putting on carefully planned shows.
