Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City)
Copyright 2006 The Deseret News Publishing Co.
PAYSON, Utah — Firefighters battled a 500-acre blaze that came within a half mile of homes in the Payson and Genola areas on Sunday.
By 10 p.m. Sunday, the fire on West Mountain was fully contained, according to the federal Bureau of Land Management.
The fire began about 2:30 p.m. and was believed to have been caused by humans. The exact cause of the fire remained under investigation Sunday night.
The fire was burning on BLM property.
No homes were evacuated, although that appeared to be a possibility for much of the afternoon as firefighters worked to keep the blaze from advancing on residential areas.
“The bottom line is, when you have an emergency — if we have homes like we did on both sides of a saddle at the south end of West Mountain, we consider those areas threatened because all it takes is a good strong wind in any direction and it’s going to push the fire toward those homes,” said Teresa Rigby of the Salt Lake City BLM office.
Firefighters from the BLM, Payson and Utah County were still fighting the blaze late Sunday. A U.S. Forest Service helicopter also was used to fight the fire during the day.