Five Utah wildfire crews fight 400,000-acre Arizona fire

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SALT LAKE CITY — With the risk of wildfires in Utah low, five Utah wildfire crews — 100 firefighters — are fighting the massive 400,000-acre Wallow Fire in southeastern Arizona, to date the second-largest in that state’s history.

Six of Utah’s 15 other wildfire crews are also deployed to fires in Arizona, New Mexico and Florida, leaving four crews still in-state. Those crews, which are 20-person teams, do not include additional 3-4 person engine companies.

The deployment does not leave Utah at risk, according to Jason Curry, of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.

We help them out, because we know that they will return the favor when we need the help. We have everything we need right now.

–Jason Curry

“We help them out, because we know that they will return the favor when we need the help. We have everything we need right now.” Were it necessary, Utah could quickly call on teams from Idaho and other places, he added.

The seven-day outlook for large wildfires is currently “little or no risk” throughout most of the state. Some parts of southern Utah are rated slightly higher, or “low risk,” according to the Eastern Great Basin Coordinating Center website.

And the state’s fire outlook from July to September is either normal or below normal, depending on the area.

Utah is home to two of the elite hotshot wildfire crews. The Bonneville Hotshots are fighting another major Arizona fire, the 116,000-acre Horseshoe Two, about 100 miles south of the Wallow. That team is from the Bureau of Land Management’s West Desert District.

And the Division of Forestry’s Lone Peak Hotshots out of Draper have been redeployed from Arizona to fight fires in Florida.

The five Utah-based wildfire crews fighting the Wallow Fire are all handcrews that spend much time digging firebreaks and other backbreaking duties. Those include Richfield-based Fishlake Regulars, the Southern Paiute team, Moab’s Red Rock Regulars, and a team of Utah Valley University student interns.

The Salt Lake Unified Fire Authority and the Northern Utah Regulars have teams “pre-positioned” for fighting wildfires in New Mexico. A handcrew from the state Lone Peak Conservation Center in Draper is fighting New Mexico’s Gage Fire.

It's grueling, backbreaking work. It's the toughest job there is.

–Gary Peck

The UVU hand crew is also known as “UFRA” for Utah Fire and Rescue Academy, a part of the state forestry division. The students get up to three fire seasons’ worth of progressively skilled experience fighting fires throughout the U.S., and many go on to UVU fire science degrees and permanent careers.

“It’s super-unique. It’s a pretty valuable program,” said Lone Peak Conservation Center program manager Gary Peck. The program brings in college student interns, and produces “firefighting professionals coming out the other end.”

The Wallow Fire currently has 24 hotshot teams and 79 handcrews deployed to fight it, according to a national wildfire website. Such crews work 16-hour days, sleep another eight, then get up to do it all over again.

Peck said he has worked on the fire crews. "It's grueling, backbreaking work," he said. "It's the toughest job there is."

Curry said Utah is expected to have a normal fire season. Deep snow pack and a late spring should keep much of the higher elevations fire free. Only lower elevations, the benches, lower valleys and western desert areas will have much risk this year, he said.

Much of the wildfire risk will be where urban areas and wild lands meet, such as along the Wasatch Front, and in the western desert, he added.

The desert areas of southwestern Utah should not have much of a wildfire season, either, said to Kelly Washburn of the Division of Forestry’s Southwest Area’s office.

“We’ve got grasses — sort of an above-average crop — two times what we had last year,” Washburn said. “But not even close to historic levels.” Her office is expecting both the total number of incidents and acres affected by wildfire this year to be below normal.

Wildfire experts pay attention to the conditions of various grasses, such as cheat grass that gradually dry out, turning from green to purple in color, and then brown. When fully dried, those grasses are termed “cured.” But the wet, cool spring has given officials and residents in potential fire areas a bit more time to prepare.

“We’re about a month behind in curedness,” Washburn said.

Washburn recommends that homeowners use the extra time to develop a wildfire action plan — preparing supplies, planning evacuation routes, having a plan for contacting family and friends, and creating “defensible space” around their homes.

“It’s a good time to do some spring- cleaning,” such as mowing weeds around residential property, she said.

Jeff Kline is a BLM fire management officer who covers the west desert from about Fillmore north. Recent tests of sagebrush and salt brush show fuel moisture levels now hovering around 200 percent, Kline said.

When those levels get down to 120 percent or lower, the danger of wild fire shoots up. The wet spring gave brush and grasses in the west desert an ideal growing season, he said. Fuel is abundant.

If the weather turns hot, dry and windy, only one of the three elements needed to create a large fire would be missing: an ignition source. That could come in the form of summer thunderstorms that often come with little rain, Kline said, or dry lightning, which causes 70 percent of wildfires in Utah.

The real key is whether those summer storms bring precipitation as well, he added.

Email:lbrubaker@desnews.com