Shooting off fireworks for July is one of the most popular American pastimes. However, due to the threat of wildfires and the ongoing wildfires devastating Utah, fireworks will be banned this holiday weekend. Utah firefighters and residents in the Great Basin and across the West are bracing for extreme wildfire conditions through the week and weekend. The National Weather Service in Salt Lake City issued a rare “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warning in parts of Utah on Friday for the first time in the office’s history, due to a volatile combination of high winds, temperatures, and low humidity.
Utah’s Governor, Spencer J. Cox, issued an executive order that temporarily expands the authority of Utah’s state forestry to restrict fireworks across the state of Utah through July 5. The threat of any more wildfires in Utah has stretched the state’s resources so much that Utah’s Governor Spencer J. Cox said, “we’re screwed,” in an interview, addressing how serious the situation is. Three firefighters were killed on Saturday while responding to the Snyder Fire, a wildfire burning along the Utah-Colorado border, the U.S. Wildland Fire Service announced overnight. Two other firefighters are being treated for burn injuries, the service said.
- Related: Human-Caused Cottonwood Fire Tears Through Utah’s Eagle Point Resort, Scorching 60,000 Acres
Fireworks are prohibited statewide; however, the Governor will leave the choice of celebrating July 4 with fireworks up to local communities. This means that mayors and local leaders, working in consultation with their fire chiefs and their fire officials, will have the authority to designate areas where fireworks can still be used safely based on conditions. Those local officials know the community, and Cox thinks this strikes the right balance. The default will be no fireworks, but every mayor, with every fire warden in the state, can decide where fireworks are safe enough to celebrate this weekend.
Critical fire weather conditions are expected to persist into Sunday, complicating efforts to contain the largest wildfire currently burning in the U.S., the Cottonwood Fire, which is burning in a sparsely populated part of southern Utah. “Our biggest challenge right now is that we have single-digit humidities and the wind gusts are around 45 miles per hour,” Alyssa Mason, a spokesperson assigned to the fire, said. On Friday, the high winds forced helicopters and firefighters to be grounded due to high winds.
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Surveyors documented their lowest snow levels on record in parts of the Rocky Mountains this winter. Utah’s snowpack, which provides the state with much of its water as it melts, peaked three weeks earlier than normal and was also the lowest on record, according to the state’s division of water resources. The fire, which has burned an area larger than the size of Salt Lake City, remains completely uncontained. “When people who’ve dedicated their lives to protecting Utah tell us this year is different, we desperately need to listen,” Cox said at a press conference.
The Eagle Point Resort fire has torn through the heart of a Utah ski community that has operated since the 1970s, destroying the resort’s Lower Lodge and several adjacent condominiums. The Cottonwood Fire, which erupted near Beaver on June 22, has since ballooned to nearly 60,000 acres with no sign of containment.
Over 28,000 acres are burning near the Colorado/Utah border; evacuations are ordered in the Glade Park areas. Utah Fire Info said that because of the extreme wind conditions and fire behaviors, all fire crews responding have been pulled back to staging areas for their safety. Once conditions improve, fire crews will immediately return to suppression efforts. Two wildland firefighters were medically evaluated with unspecified injuries from the fires, according to a spokesperson with the U.S. Department of the Interior. Five Grand Junction firefighters had to be rescued after becoming trapped while battling fires near Glade Park on Saturday afternoon.
Critical fire weather conditions are expected to persist into Sunday, complicating efforts to contain the largest wildfire currently burning in Utah. The Cottonwood Fire in Utah’s Paiute and Beaver counties had spread to about 92,254 acres with 0% containment. The Iron Fire was at about 41,467 acres with 38% containment in Utah’s Juab, Tooele, and Utah counties. And the Cherry Fire, which was also in Juab and Tooele counties, covered about 30,766 acres with 0% containment.
Wildfire ash and smoke have permeated through the Colorado Rocky Mountains as well. Nearly every ski town across Colorado and Utah has issued, at minimum, a Stage 1 fire restriction, meaning fireworks are strictly banned across the Rocky Mountain region due to wildfire risk.
