More than two days after being sparked by lightning, the Silver King Fire in southern Utah continues to rage out of control and has more than doubled in size over the past 24 hours.
The blaze in the mountains several miles west of Marysvale in Piute County has grown from 5,400 acres Sunday to nearly 11,000 acres this morning and is zero percent contained, according to federal and local fire officials. That’s up from about 60 acres Friday afternoon when the fire erupted in the Beaver Creek Drainage area of Fishlake National Forest.
“This fire is a beast,” said Marysvale Fire Chief Jon Christensen. “It is in horrible terrain and steep canyons that go just straight up and down. The only way we can fight it is with hand crews and aircraft.”
Hand crews are 18-plus-member firefighter teams that deploy on the front lines of active wildfires.
On Sunday, air tankers and helicopters dumped water and fire retardant from the air while hundreds of federal firefighters, including five Hotshot teams, worked to contain the fire on the ground, according to Marysvale City’s Facebook page.
“We have everything from local volunteer fire departments doing structure-protection work to 20-person Hotshots crews that are on the line fighting the fire directly,” said Kevin Abel, public information officer for the Great Basin Incident Management Team 2 that took over the management of the fire this morning.
Great Basin Team 2 is one of 16 national incident-management teams spread across the nation that respond to natural disasters and national emergencies.
Thus far, Abel said, there are roughly 350 firefighters from federal, state and local agencies battling the blaze. In addition, there are three large helicopters, one smaller helicopter for command and control and one aircraft — all under contract or deployed by the state — attacking the fire from the air.
Despite the assets devoted to the fire, Abel added, it is difficult to gain the upper hand because of the rough terrain and remoteness of the area. The lack of roads to the area means firefighters often have to hike to get to the fire. High winds, which temporarily grounded the fixed-wing aircraft on one occasion, have also been a factor.
Abel said more help is on the way as more firefighters and additional resources are being funneled into the area to ramp up fire-containment efforts. In addition, as the fire drew closer to 300 homes on Sunday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, approved the state’s request for federal funds to help with firefighting costs.
Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune
The federal grant makes funds available to pay for 75% of the state’s eligible firefighting costs. However, it doesn’t provide assistance to individual home or business owners or cover fire damage to infrastructure, according to FEMA.
Firefighters’ focus today will be on the northwest side of the fire, scouting and constructing fire lines to prevent the spread of the fire. In addition, fire crews will strengthen the fire break from Beaver Creek to Deer Creek and continue protecting structures in Bullion County, according to the U.S. Forest Service-Fishlake National Forest website
Higher-than-normal temperatures and wind gusts up to 25 mph are expected, according to Forest Service officials, making for another day of extreme fire weather and tough firefighting conditions. Residents in upper Bullion Canyon, west of Marysvale, were evacuated yesterday. In addition, power to some areas of the canyon has been lost.
Christensen said about 20 homeowners in the Marysvale area have voluntarily decided to evacuate until the threat abates. There have been no deaths, injuries or damage to homes or other structures, he noted, but said the threat is far from over. He said his volunteer firefighters are working around the clock setting up roadblocks, dousing hotspots and protecting structures.
“It’s all hands on deck,” he said. “My guys have been working for three days straight with no sleep. We are a town of about 400 people, and this is a major event.”
Fire officials are asking motorists to steer clear of Marysvale until the fire is brought under control.
