The Associated Press
 AP/The Salt Lake Tribune, Danny Chan La Firefighters hike in to help fight the wildfire north of Roosevelt, Utah, Sunday. |
NEOLA, Utah — A fast-moving wildfire in northeast Utah has burned more than 47 square miles, but some progress had been made with more firefighters on hand and calmer winds, a fire official said Monday.
The fire was 5 percent contained Monday but that number could grow if the fire lines are successful, said Brenda Bowlen, spokeswoman for the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team.
“They made a lot of really good progress getting (fire) lines tied in,” Bowlen said. “It’s just going to take time to see if those lines will hold.”
About 100 members of the Utah National Guard were to help fight the fire Monday.
The fire killed three men Friday and was burning on a mosaic of private and public lands and the Uintah and Ouray Indian reservations in northeast Utah. The flames had spread north of Neola, about 100 miles east of Salt Lake City, and in Ashley National Forest, which has been closed to the public.
It is also spreading through several small rural communities near the forest. Uintah County Sheriff Jeff Merrell said buildings had been destroyed but he didn’t have a count.
Hot, gusting winds hampered firefighters as a highly trained fire crew took over Sunday with about 400 firefighters from all over the country focused on hot spots on the north and east edges of the fire.
About 300 people were under a mandatory evacuation, according to Derek Jensen a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman.
Some residents of Farm Creek were escorted to their homes by the Uintah County Sheriff’s department Sunday evening to get clothes and medicine and then they were escorted out, Bowlen said Monday.
Fire officials have agreed to let Ute residents of Whiterocks back into their homes Monday morning, Bowlen said.
Hot, dry conditions had helped the fire grow, but wind gusts were forecast to decrease Monday, Bowlen said.
Meanwhile in California, firefighters were tackling fires from Santa Barbara to San Diego early Monday, as Southern California headed into its first heat wave of the summer.
Temperatures were expected to reach into the triple digits this week in some areas, increasing the fire danger in an already parched region.
Authorities were gaining ground on a 482-acre fire in the Los Padres National Forest northwest of Santa Barbara, which started Saturday and was 60 percent contained early Monday, according to a U.S. Forest Service fire information line.
The blaze had closed some campgrounds, but no residents had been ordered to leave.
A pair of wildfires burned near the town of Julian, east of San Diego. The larger fire had consumed 110 acres and was 20 percent contained by Sunday night, authorities said. The other blaze to the west blackened about 60 acres. Both were expected to be contained Monday.
The fires came as Southern California ended its driest year on record.
In the year beginning July 1, 2006, only 3.21 inches of rain fell on downtown Los Angeles, the lowest since records began 130 years ago. Normal rainfall is about 15 inches per year.
In Montana, residents of 40 to 50 summer homes just outside Yellowstone National Park were allowed to return home Sunday night as firefighters had a 6-square mile blaze about 60 percent contained. It began on Wednesday.