By Bob Mims
The Salt Lake Tribune
SALT LAKE CITY — An army of firefighters, spearheaded by a specially trained “hot shot” crew, completely contained a wildfire Friday night that had blackened about 1,390 acres of western Utah desert range and desert lands.
Jason Curry of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands said that shortly after dawn Friday nearly 100 firefighters began work to halt the spread of flames and complete containment lines around the blaze, which was burning in grass, sagebrush, pinyon pine and juniper in Tooele County. By 9:30 p.m. Curry said that crews had reached 100 percent containment.
Curry estimated the blaze, dubbed the “73 Fire,” had scorched up to 1,000 acres by mid-day Friday, roughly twice the acreage reported on Thursday. A GPS-mapping of the blaze late Friday nailed down the acreage total to 1,390.
The fire was believed to have been sparked by hot particles shed from a faulty catalytic converter on a vehicle driving on State Road 73 at a spot about 25 miles southeast of Tooele. Roadside evidence indicates that around 8 a.m. Thursday, pieces of hot metal from the unit landed in grass along the road’s shoulders, sparking the blaze, Curry said.
The 20-member Interagency Hotshot Crew out of Cedar City, trained to battle wildfires in especially remote and rugged locales, was considered a critical element in Friday’s turnaround.
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