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FISH LAKE, Sevier County — Four family members were hospitalized with severe burns and another was treated and released after the enclosed cargo trailer they were camping in erupted in flames early Sunday morning, police said.
Richfield Communication Center received a call at about 6:57 a.m. of a trailer fire near Mytoge Mountain Road just south of Fish Lake, according to Sevier County Sheriff’s officials.
Police said a family of five, with ages ranging from 7 to 40, were injured in the fire. All five were taken to Sevier Valley Hospital. Three were then flown by medical helicopter to the University of Utah burn center. Another was transported by ambulance to the same burn center, and another was treated and released. Their names were not immediately released.
All five received burns to their faces and extremities, police said. Those burns ranged from first to third degree in severity.
Officials said the father of the family told investigators that he had struck the igniter on a propane heater when the trailer erupted in flames. Flames then filled the entire trailer.
Officials said the fire melted several items inside the trailer and separated a seam in the roof. Police added that a coupling to the propane bottle hose was found leaking propane.
The Utah Fire Marshal's Office is assisting Sevier County Sheriff’s Office officials in investigating the fire, and fire departments from Koosharem and Richfield assisted in the initial emergency response, police said.