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DRAPER — A brand new facility in the Salt Lake Valley will help in the coordination of fighting wildfires in Northern Utah.
The Northern Utah Interagency Fire Center is a partnership between the State of Utah, the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. The state donated the property, which is located near the prison, while the BLM paid for the actual building and the Forest Service contributed to the equipment inside. The effort is a joint one that continues out on the fire lines.
The new facility is where the battle begins against all wildfires reported along the Wasatch Front.
"The phone starts to ring off the hook, you're trying to get the dispatch sent out at the same time, getting folks going in that direction" said Northern Utah Interagency Fire Center Assistant Manager Sean Lodges.
It's here where Lodge and his team dispatch fire trucks, Hot Shot crews, helicopters and air support, to wildfires burning on either state or federal land.
And it is already seeing some action, as Utah Wildland firefighters gear up for what could be the worst fire season in the past five years.
"So if there's a fire, we will be open 24 hours a day, to assist and make sure everybody out there is safe and they get the resources and logistical support that they need," Lodge said.
This new state of the art facility replaces the previous cramped location and makes it much easier to track where the fires are and the resources needed to fight them.
"We have more fires now than we use to" said Dick Buehler, director of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands. "They are larger and more complicated, a lot of that has to do with the wildland urban interface, so we're having a direct threat to life and property."
The new center also allows for better communication, with the key players all in the same room, according to Jeff Kline, a fire management officer with the Bureau of Land Management.
"It all centers around communication through this dispatch center and so that has provided us the mechanism to be more effective and efficient," Kline said. "It's all a coordinated effort based upon what our preplanning is and where the resources are and what's available."
Concern about the fire danger and the potential for volatile fire behavior in Utah keeps growing with the dry conditions.
Already this year, 96 wildfires have been battled in Utah.
Fire restrictions have been in effect in Washington County, since June 1. Other counties are expected to implement fire restrictions very soon.
"It's all setting up, where fuels are pretty dry and if it doesn't rain every few days, it could be a lot busier summer," said Kevin Pfister, a fire management officer, with the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. That has fire bosses like Buehler pleading with everyone to be cautious, for the sake of themselves and the firefighters. "We just want people to be careful and remember when they start a fire, somebody has to put it out and hopefully those people who put it out are able to go home to their families," Beuhler said.
