Cottonwood Fire spreads as dangerous winds grip Southwest

Firefighters battling the nation’s largest active wildfire faced another day of dangerous winds, dry air and parched vegetation Saturday as the Cottonwood Fire in southern Utah grew to more than 92,000 acres and remained entirely uncontained.

The fire, burning in Beaver County and the Fishlake National Forest, expanded by roughly 20,000 acres overnight, according to state officials and the U.S. Forest Service. No injuries or deaths have been reported, but the blaze has damaged Eagle Point, a ski resort, forced evacuations earlier in the week and led to forest closures. The cause remains under investigation.

The National Weather Service warned that gusty winds, low humidity and dry thunderstorms had created an “extremely critical risk” of fire weather — its highest threat level — across the Great Basin and Four Corners regions. Its Salt Lake City office also issued a rare “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warning, a designation reserved for exceptionally dangerous, life-threatening conditions and the first of its kind for that office.

“Our biggest challenge right now is that we have single digit humidities and the wind gusts are around 45 miles per hour,” Alyssa Mason, a spokesperson assigned to the Cottonwood Fire, told NPR. “That’s on top of fuel moistures between 2 and 8 percent.”

On Friday, those conditions forced incident managers to temporarily pull firefighters off the line, Mason said. Helicopters and other aircraft were also grounded because of high winds. NBC News reported that gusts up to 50 mph were expected Saturday, with some improvement possible before temperatures and winds rose again in the afternoon.

Mason said there was no estimate for containment. “Our plan of action has not changed. We are continuing to engage the fire where and when we can, with firefighter and public safety as our main priority,” she said in a statement.

Smoke from the fire was expected to push air quality in the Marysvale area to unhealthy levels by afternoon and evening. Officials advised sensitive groups, including children, pregnant women, older adults and people with heart or lung disease, to avoid outdoor physical activity.

Utah and much of the Intermountain West are enduring widespread drought after an abnormally dry winter. Utah’s snowpack peaked three weeks earlier than usual and was the lowest on record, according to the state’s division of water resources. Mason said vegetation in the Cottonwood Fire area has been drying since March after record high temperatures and record low snowpack.

Several other Utah fires were also straining crews. The Wild Goose Fire in Millard County grew to nearly 9,000 acres as firefighters tried to keep it from reaching a freeway. The Cherry Fire in Juab County exceeded 30,000 acres and was zero percent contained. It merged with the nearby Iron Fire, which straddles Juab and Tooele counties and was 38% contained at more than 40,000 acres. Two fires near Eureka have burned about 70,000 acres combined, The Guardian reported.

“We’re starting to get stretched thin on resources,” state forester Jamie Barnes said. After Gov. Spencer Cox announced temporary statewide fireworks restrictions, Barnes said fires were spreading “farther and faster under conditions that defy historical expectations.”

Cox restricted fireworks statewide through July 5, limiting Fourth of July displays to select areas. “We are seeing fire behavior that even our most experienced firefighters say they’ve never witnessed before,” Cox said Thursday. “This is a temporary measure for an extraordinary year.”

Dangerous fire conditions extended beyond Utah. In New Mexico, the McCauley Springs Fire in Sandoval County had burned 722 acres and was zero percent contained. In Nevada, the Grapevine Fire covered about 26,000 acres with no containment, while the nearby Kane Springs Fire was about half contained at roughly 17,000 acres. North of Sedona, Arizona, crews continued fighting the Pocket Fire as officials warned that winds were working against them.