The team fighting the Silver King Fire raging northeast of Beaver works 16 hour shifts. Of those hours, at least 12 are spent at the fire line — and that’s on a good day, said team supervisor Sheena Waters Gilbert.
Fire incident management teams like Waters Gilbert’s are mobilized all around the nation during the summer months to fight wildfires that cannot be contained locally. Waters Gilbert herself traveled to Utah from Idaho, but there are also Tennessee and Georgia crews working on the Silver King Fire.
Those on the ground are noticing very dry conditions, available fuel, and in general, a wildfire season that is ahead of schedule, Waters Gilbert said.
This year, Utah has already seen 538 wildfires scorching nearly 40,000 acres of land, according to a live dashboard from Utah Fire Info. These still-rising statistics, recorded as of July 16, are set to blow last year’s totals out of the water. There were 808 wildfires reported in all of 2023, burning only 18,061 acres by comparison.
(Utah Fire Info) Officials discuss firefighting operations for the Silver King Fire, burning northeast of Beaver. The wildfire was caused by lightning and discovered on Friday, July 5, 2024.
Humans bear some of the responsibility for this year′s surge. With months to go in the wildfire season, 402 of this year’s wildfires have been human-caused. That number is already greater than last year’s total, which recorded 339 human-caused wildfires.
Statewide wildfire prevention specialist Kelly Wickens worries that Utahns have let their guard down.
“I think the last couple years have been wet, and the fields are not as receptive to fire. So this year we have people that have probably gotten a little more relaxed in their behaviors. And you can’t get away with it this year,” she said.
Beyond a false sense of security, last year’s wetter conditions also provided fresh fuel for this year’s wildfires. “The vegetation has really grown, especially our grasses and our ‘fine fuels’ is what we call them,” Wickens explained.
Seven significant fires burn from the northern end of the state to the southern border right now: the Little Twist, Silver King, Babylon, Deer Springs, Graff Point, Spiers and the Tangent Peak fires. The Little Twist and Deer Springs fires are both human-caused.
As of today, there are at leat 1,150 people deployed for wildfire containment in the state. The Silver King Fire — where Gilbert is stationed west of Marysvale, Utah — draws the bulk of resources, including 646 people, 12 crews, 33 engines and six helicopters.
(Utah Fire Info) Wildland firefighters mop up hotspots from the Babylon Fire, which sparked west of Blanding, Utah, on July 5, 2024.
Firefighting is about being a “team player,” said Waters Gilbert. One person is assigned to an area, and is asked to implement any variety of firefighting tactics to control their section.
The job comes with danger. “I’m asking the hotshot crews and the heavy equipment and the engines to go into places and do things full well knowing of the risks, the hazards and the exposures,” Waters Gilbert said.
Despite long hours and dangerous work conditions, Waters Gilbert says “the people” make her job worth it.
“The camaraderie on the team you build and the personnel that end up on your division … most often, people you’ve never met before, but are instantly having to build relationships of trust” with, she said, that ”evolve into friendships in a matter of minutes.”
Them — and “the communities,” she said.
The Marysvale community, for instance, has welcomed Waters Gilbert’s team with kindness and even supportive deer, she said. The town has a pair of deer that have turned into the firefighting teams’ mascots.
(Sheena Waters Gilbert) One of the "local ladies" of Marysvale — a pair of deer that have been safely keeping watch over the wildland firefighters working the Silver King Fire west of Marysvale, Utah.
“I call them the ‘local ladies,’ or the ‘neighborhood watch,’ and they are up there just hanging out, very curious, very friendly,” she said.
Looking ahead, Waters Gilbert worries that the premature fire season will lead to fatigue later on. “Some of us are even fighting fire in November; that’s when that cumulative fatigue becomes extremely noticeable between the team and the resources on the ground and everybody.”
Wildfire mitigation is partially in the public’s hands, officials say. Prevention tips can be found at Utah Fire Sense.