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SARATOGA SPRINGS — A fast-moving blaze threatened a Saratoga Springs neighborhood Friday afternoon, but a combination of air power and ground units managed to stop the blaze in its tracks around 6:30 p.m. Friday.
"We stopped it exactly one mile short of the city," said Allen Briggs, the Utah Division of Forestry fire management officer for the Wasatch area. "There is no active fire front. It's not much of a blaze anymore."
Briggs reported the fire burned 500 acres and is about 75 percent contained.
Earlier, residents of a Saratoga Springs subdivision nearest the fire were told to get ready to leave their homes, and that if they wished, they could go ahead and evacuate, Briggs said.
Four air tankers were scrambled from Hill Air Force Base and two helicopters are dumping water on the blaze, as well as numerous ground units from several agencies.
The fire started around 12:30 p.m. on a line parallel to mile marker 23 on S.R. 68, which runs the western length of Utah Lake. While the cause is not yet known, it began on Bureau of Land Management land in an area popular for recreational firearms use, Briggs said. Several fires have started in that area in the last few weeks, he added.
Fire officials called in the air tankers to lay down a slurry on the fire's front, and ground units followed closely behind to make sure the slurry didn't have time to dry out and not effectively do it's job.
Firefighters from state, federal and local agencies battle the blaze, including Saratoga Springs, Lehi, Lone Peak, Goshen, Eagle Mountain, Utah County, the Utah Division of Forestry, the U.S. Forest Service and the BLM.
"We had really great interagency cooperation to help suppress and contain the fire from state, local and federal agencies," Briggs said, adding that the pubic doesn't realize how much interangency coordination is involved in such fires. "Kudos are really deserved by everyone."
The fire was dubbed the "Dyno Fire," according to the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands website, utahfireinfo.gov.
Email:lbrubaker@ksl.com
