Utah Fires Menace Cabins; Crews Call for More Help

Fire bosses in southern Utah requested 400 reinforcements Monday to battle a blaze threatening summer cabins, and a fire that was declared controlled in Mesa Verde National Park rekindled and jumped fire lines.

Smoke jumpers parachuted to a small fire in rugged terrain in Idaho at a site so high that snow was available to fight flames.

In addition to the requested reinforcements, 400 firefighters were already on the Uintah Flat forest fire in the Dixie National Forest.

Forest Service spokesman Bevan Killpack said the fire grew to 6,230 acres by Monday, burning well into private land and moving slowly toward several summer cabins in the Bonanza Creek subdivision near Hatch, about 40 miles east of Cedar City.

Near Cabins

The fire came within an eighth of a mile of one cabin and a quarter of a mile of several others, which were guarded by engine crews as firefighters cleared brush and bulldozers carved fire lines around them, Killpack said.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials scrambled for crews to fight two new fires elsewhere in Utah.

However, a 118-acre blaze that neared dozens of posh homes on Salt Lake City’s east side was declared contained, and crews doused hot spots by helicopter and with hand-carried water bags.

A forest fire that was declared controlled Thursday in Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado flared up again over the weekend and had spread to more than 360 new acres by Monday, for a total of 3,100 acres burned in the 52,000-acre park, officials said.

“The humidity dropped, it got warmer and the wind picked up. The fire kind of skittered around a little bit and skipped a fire line,” said John Pasquantino, fire information officer at the park.

There were 137 firefighters on the line Monday. Officials estimated the blaze was 85% contained, but the remaining 15% was on extremely steep terrain, and containment was not predicted until Wednesday.

The park, which features ancient Indian cliff dwellings sheltered in canyons, remained open, although three roads were closed.

As they had last week, archeologists worked with fire crews on the mesas above the canyons to make sure no ancient artifacts in the park were damaged by firefighting. There were no reports of any specific archeological sites threatened, Pasquantino said.

Fire bosses dropped a pair of smoke jumpers into rugged terrain on the Targhee National Forest in eastern Idaho to battle a small lightning-sparked fire on U.S. Sheep Experiment Station land.

“It’s so high, they have access to snow up there, and they’re going to use that,” said Targhee spokeswoman Lisa Lew.