Hundreds of firefighters from local and federal agencies are battling six different wildfires in Tooele County, including one near Pine Canyon that necessitated an evacuation and another near Dugway Proving Ground that closed Lookout Pass.
According to UtahFireInfo.gov, the fires have burned more than 4,000 acres all together as of press time Wednesday. The most visible to residents of Tooele Valley — the Anaconda Fire in Pine Canyon — was sparked Sunday by lightning and has burned more than 1,140 acres.
Kim Osborn, public information officer for the incident command on that fire, said fire crews have achieved 25 percent containment, and no aerial support was needed Wednesday, although it had been used earlier in the battle. No residents were evacuated or on standby Wednesday, she said, and firefighters were working on making enough of a buffer to keep the danger from knocking on doors in Pine Canyon.
“The crews are working on each side, improving the fireline and working on any hot spots we have,” she said. “We’re focusing on that.”
On Monday night, however, the fire crept close enough towards homes on the eastern edge of Pine Canyon that residents were evacuated to the Tooele East Stake Center as a precaution.
The evacuation order Monday was lifted at about 10 p.m., though residents were kept on standby and told to keep their large animals away from the fire. Lt. Ron Johnson of the Tooele County Sheriff’s Office, said Deseret Peak Complex’s facilities have been offered to owners of large animals in the areas threatened by fire.
Workers from Tooele County used a Caterpillar to clear part of a firebreak on the east end of Pine Canyon, which was met by firebreak efforts from discing done by the Bureau of Land Management, Johnson said.
As of Wednesday morning, the Sheep Fire, 11 miles south of Terra, had burned 1,850 acres of sagebrush and juniper on the south side of Lookout Pass, prompting the closure of the road. The fire, sparked by lightning on Sunday, was 15 percent contained as of press time.
Teresa Rigby, fire information officer for the BLM, said while the fire was several miles away from any major structures or homes, crews were working hard to keep it that way.
“We know fires can grow larger very quickly. There’s no threat to Terra at this point and time, and we want to keep it primarily south of the Pony Express Road,” she said. “We don’t want it to get on the other side where it can run through at the mercy at high winds we’re experiencing every afternoon.”
Rigby said a backburn to consume a specific area of fuel was set Tuesday in an effort to stop the spread in that direction.
“They were able to use fire, which often times we do in fighting fire, to establish a clean line along one side of it, and I think that contributed to that containment,” she said. “It helps us in these situations when wildfires don’t always burn in nice straight lines. We have to create that and find a nice barrier, like a road to help tie it off.”
Rigby said she believed the backburn helped increase the containment to 15 percent, up from 10 percent earlier Tuesday.
The Lion Peak Fire, on the southwest side of the Simpson Mountains, had burned 950 acres as of Wednesday and had reached 5 percent containment. Rigby said while no structures were expected to be ever threatened by that fire, crews were trying to mitigate its growth to preserve the wilderness.
“It’s more remote than the Sheep Fire, but it’s still important,” she said. “We don’t want to see any more of that land burned. We want to minimize the amount of sage grouse habitat that’s burned.”
In addition to the two larger fires, the Lucky Fire, north of the Simpson Mountains, burned 35 acres before reaching 100 percent containment Tuesday. Firefighters were also fighting the Lincoln Fire near the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians Reservation, which had burned 35 acres at its latest update Wednesday. The South Mountain Fire had burned 25 acres eight miles south of Grantsville as of Wednesday, and had no containment.
A seventh fire, the Flats Fire, was extinguished Tuesday.
Rigby cautioned holiday campers to steer clear of Simpson Springs, because of the congregation of firefighting vehicles, and to use Johnson’s Pass, not Lookout Pass, to get to Skull Valley. Campers should also take care to be responsible with campfires and not light fireworks or shoot with steel ammunition, as per federal land restrictions.