Weekend of wildfires leaves more than 55,000 acres charred

The biggest wildfire in at least a decade in Tooele County continued to burn Tuesday, although firefighters have been successful in extinguishing three other fires across the county that were sparked by lightning last week.

The Big Pole fire, which started last Wednesday and was discovered the following Thursday morning, has burned 44,200 acres so far. It is 60 percent contained.

The fire caused evacuations, threatened, damaged and destroyed structures, and resulted in a Type 2 Incident Management team being called in to manage the massive blaze in coordination with local, state and federal authorities.

The fire started east of Ensign Ranches in Skull Valley. High southerly winds pushed the flames northward at first, then shifting winds caused flames to travel back and forth and over the peaks of the Stansbury Mountains. The fire continues to burn in timber understory.

The fire did cross SR-196 at one point, but the majority of the damage sustained in Skull Valley was east of the road. The fire did not impact historic Iosepa.

“When we found it, it was 10 acres [large]. By 18:00, it was 22,000 [acres] and by that night it was 40,000,” said Brenyn Lohmoelder, prevention tech and investigator with the Salt Lake Field Office of the BLM.

The fire has burned on BLM, U.S. Forest Service, state and private lands.

Cooler temperatures and higher humidity over the weekend helped crews gain ground on the lightning-caused blaze.

Fire suppression efforts on Monday were focused on the east-facing slope of the Stansbury Mountains in rugged terrain at elevations above 6,000 feet.

A voluntary evacuation recommendation was in place for residents in Skull Valley, as well as an evacuation recommendation for people in North and South Willow canyons. Currently, all Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest system lands in the Stansbury Mountains are closed until further notice, including the lower three campgrounds in South Willow Canyon.

“It’s in the heavy timber at this point and there is some downed and dead stuff on the ground and leaf litter. If we happen to get some really warm temperatures and erratic winds again it could pick up and move,” said Forest Service spokeswoman Kathy Jo Pollock.

Some residents in the area were evacuated last week. Residences were threatened, although none are now, according to Lisa Reid, information officer with the BLM. One residence was destroyed and three were damaged. Two commercial properties — a US Magnesium well and a chicken farm disposal area — were also damaged. Ten outbuildings have been destroyed.

ATV riders in the Skull Valley area on Thursday had to be rescued, according to Lohmoelder.

SR-196 in Skull Valley was closed Thursday but was reopened Friday. Interstate 80 near Grantsville was not closed.

“We were prepared to close it for smoke and visibility, but we never had to,” said Lohmoelder.

In order to avoid disturbance of fragile soils and water sources on BLM public lands managed by the West Desert District, Lohmoelder said the BLM will be enacting an emergency closure within the fire perimeter from the east side of the Skull Valley Highway to the north edge of the Goshute Indian Reservation in the coming weeks. Similar closures are in consideration for areas on the east side of the Stansburys affected by the fire. Until the closures are in affect, the public is being asked to refrain from cross-country ATV use on public lands within the fire.

“One thing that we are concerned about as far as the BLM is persons recreating and doing off-roading, ATVing in areas that have burned,” Reid said. “We want to protect our fragile soils and watersheds and if people are out there riding around where it’s burned there’s high potential of damaging those resources, so we want people to be mindful of that.”

Nine hand crews, six engines, six bulldozers, five water tenders and four helicopters were assigned to the fire Monday, although some crews were demobilized over the weekend and throughout the day yesterday and into the evening as firefighters got a handle on the blaze.

Resources from federal, state and local agencies responded to the fire. Crews from around the country — Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Wyoming and Idaho — came to fight the blaze, setting up tent cities in Grantsville.

The cost of fighting the fire is at $1.6 million, according to Reid.

Clayton Mitchell, a contracted helicopter pilot out of Tulsa, Okla., with Helicopter Express, said as he was flying Monday he didn’t see any flames, but was cooling several hotspots.

Lohmoelder said generally charred areas will get reseeded with native grasses, although she hasn’t heard for sure what’s going to happen in this instance.

“If you don’t do anything, the cheat grass grows back and it’s just a mess,” she said. “Cheatgrass is a fire’s best friend.”

She added cheatgrass was partly responsible for the rapid spread of the fire.

Other fires that burned across the county over the weekend were under control by Monday.

A fire in Pole Canyon, east of Erda, dubbed the Coyote fire, burned 71 acres and was 100 percent contained yesterday. It started Wednesday at 9:36 p.m. and burned in high elevations. A Bonneville Communications Tower was at risk but not damaged.

The fire in Settlement Canyon, which was ignited by lightning and discovered Thursday morning at about 7:30, was fully contained after scorching 147 acres last Saturday. Upon discovery, the fire was only 10 acres in size, but strong winds fanned flames and by Thursday afternoon it had grown to more than 100 acres. The fire burned in steep terrain in sage brush, Gambel oak and timber. It was extinguished partly by helicopters dumping water scooped out of Settlement Canyon Reservoir. (See story above.)

Voluntary evacuations were in place at Camp Wapiti and campgrounds in the canyon. Structures, including 18 cabins and outbuildings less than a mile from the fire, were threatened but not damaged.

The White Rocks fire, which burned south of the Big Pole fire in Skull Valley, burned 10,600 acres and was 100 percent contained on Saturday. The fire burned in steep and sandy terrain. A communications tower was at risk.

Tooele County Fire Warden Roice Arnold said, referring to the four fires burning at once, “We’ve always gotten big fires going but that was definitely a challenge for the guys.”

Wade Mathews, public information officer for Tooele County Emergency Management, said in his nine years here the Big Pole fire has been the largest in recent history.

“This one has also forced evacuations, but also done some structural damage. We haven’t had that many wildfires in the mountains that have threatened structures for which precautionary evacuations have taken place,” he said. “This Big Pole fire has actually burned a home and forced necessary evacuations of people for their safety.”

Sarah Miley: swest@tooeletranscript.com