Stage 1 fire restrictions now in place for southern Utah

ST. GEORGE— With wildfires starting to pop up around the state, Stage 1 fire restrictions are now in place in southern Utah as announced Friday by the Bureau of Land Management.  Fire managers in multiple counties are worried about the dry, hot conditions. As a result, they are urging people to be careful this summer.

What it means

So, what does Stage 1 mean when it comes to fire restrictions? Basically, it means no campfires or open fires outside of designated areas are allowed.  Additonally, no fireworks are allowed on public lands, but there is more. Stage 1 fire restrictrions also include the following:

• No shooting of explosive targets.
• No metal cutting or welding in dry areas.
• No smoking near vegetation.

With the current conditions, the BLM said it's just too dangerous. "Right now, we are averaging between three and four fires most days of the week," said Nick Howell, fire management specialist with the Bureau of Land Management. "We're expecting conditions to definitely continue to dry out." Howell is the fire manager for the BLM's Color Country District near Cedar City. He said most of the fires in the area could have been prevented. "Most of our wildfires here in the Color Country Interagency Management Area are human-caused fires at this point," he said. The reason why fire managers are worried about the conditions is because there is a lot of grass is southern Utah. Some portions of southern Utah have had higher-than-normal precipitation, which means a lot of grass growth, and that vegetation is starting to dry out.

Locations included

The areas under Stage 1 restriction are in Washington, Iron, Beaver, Kane, and Garfield counties as well as several areas in northern Arizona. With temperatures expected to stay warm for the foreseeable future, fire conditions are only going to get worse.

Mark Jones contributed to this story.

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