By Mark Havnes
The Salt Lake Tribune
Copyright 2006 The Salt Lake Tribune
All Rights Reserved
LA VERKIN, Utah — Acrid smoke blanketed St. George and other communities in southwestern Utah, a haunting reminder of two major fires burning in Washington County on Tuesday.
Unlike on Monday, when weather conditions forced the Jarvis fire, 10 miles west of St. George, to nearly double in size to 30,000 acres, Tuesday was a little more to firefighters’ advantage with cooler temperatures and lighter winds. Still, the fire was upgraded Tuesday to a Type 2, making the fire eligible for more resources.
Barbara Bassler, a spokeswoman for the fire management team, said firefighters spent the day providing protection for communities including Santa Clara, Ivins, the Shivwits-Paiute Reservation, Bloomington and St. George.
“There are no communities at risk, but when you have [fire] next to a community we want to alert these people and let them know what is being done for their safety,” Bassler said.
The human-caused Jarvis fire has burned more than 33,000 acres since it was started Sunday.
It was 20 percent contained Tuesday and could be fully contained by Saturday, said Bassler from the team’s command post at Snow Canyon Middle School in St. George, where smoke columns from the fire that was feeding off tinder dry grass, brush and pinyon-juniper trees could be seen rising 10 miles to the west.
Bassler said a lot of natural barriers in the area are helping firefighting crews.
Farther to the east, between Zion National Park and the town of La Verkin, the 17,000-acre Kolob fire continued burning in the desert vegetation along the park’s western boundary in an area known as Kolob Terrace.
Murray Shoemaker, the spokesman for the Kolob fire management team, said firefighters Tuesday strengthened fire lines along State Road 9 by conducting back burns.
Power to customers in the communities along State Road 9 east of La Verkin that was cut off Monday night had been restored to all customers by Tuesday morning after crews with Utah Power replaced several poles burned in the fire.
While the Zion Canyon scenic drive, shuttle and Zion-Mount Carmel Highway and tunnel are open, all trails in the park accessed by the Kolob Terrace Road are closed until further notice. The Terrace Road is also closed to all but firefighters and equipment.
Shoemaker said the fire is being suppressed to keep it from growing north toward the Kolob Reservoir, where there are cabins and summer homes.
Fire spokesman Tom Haraden said the Kolob fire was 10 percent contained on Tuesday with no estimate of when it would be fully contained.
Since the human-caused fire started Saturday, it has burned two out buildings, two pickup trucks and a horse trailer.
The exact cause of the fire is under investigation, but it is believed to be human-caused.
“There was no lightning in the area on Saturday,” said Haraden, pointing out an area cordoned off by yellow police tape along Kolob Terrace Road, where the origin may have occurred.
No one has been injured at either fire.
Just to the south of Kanab, over the Arizona state line, the Warm fire, burning two miles south and east of Jacob Lake and 14 miles north of the Grand Canyon National Park boundary, has charred more than 58,000 acres, said fire information officer Mary Malene.
The lightning-caused fire that started June 8, was originally allowed to burn as a wildland fire, but is now being actively suppressed since it exceeded its wildland use parameters on Sunday.
Due to safety concerns, Arizona State Road 67 leading into the park was closed Sunday night and more than 200 visitors to the North Rim were escorted in 77 vehicles through the smoke to Fredonia, Ariz., on Tuesday morning.
Malene said if evaluation of SR 67 is favorable today, workers at the shops and lodging in the park will be escorted out.
Jacob Lake Inn and campground and other businesses at Jacob Lake remain open.
Elsewhere in Utah, lightning ignited a fire about 4:30 p.m. Monday about five miles south of the town of Terra in Tooele County.
Called the Hatch fire, the blaze burned 350 acres by Tuesday morning, said Erin Darboven, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Winds were fanning the flames from the south, toward Terra, Darboven said, and structures were threatened.
Also on Monday, a wildfire in the benches around Ogden forced evacuations of at least two neighborhoods when flames from a campfire ignited the hillside near 1100 N. Mountain Road around 11 p.m. Ogden Fire Battalion Chief Corey Barton said the fire was quickly contained and the residents were allowed to return. Barton said the fire burned about 100 acres and caused no injuries but left minor property damage including a power transformer station. The damage to that station indirectly caused a power outage that affected as many as 55,000 customers for about an hour Tuesday afternoon. The damage forced Utah Power personnel to route power supply through another switch that failed under the load around 4 p.m.