A wildfire in Salt Lake City forced residents living upriver from the Utah state capital to evacuate, and it remained out of control Sunday as more than 100 firefighters worked to protect nearby homes.
Helicopters and planes dropped buckets of water on the flames as ground crews tried to contain the fire on Ensign Peak. Firefighters worked to save homes about 1.2 miles (1.9 kilometers) from East Capitol Boulevard, and evacuees were offered space in the Capitol complex where they could escape the heat.
“With the heat, along with the wind direction and just the temperatures here and the moisture in the fuel, it’s kind of a recipe that could cause us to have a fire that spreads quickly,” Salt Lake City Fire Department Division Chief Bob Silverthorne said at a news briefing Saturday.
The first fire crew was dispatched around 4:30 p.m. Saturday and more than six different emergency agencies joined the effort, Silverthorne said.
Officers knocked on doors to alert homeowners after firefighters ordered a mandatory evacuation of an area of 40 homes on Sandhurst Drive, north of Dorchester Drive. A voluntary evacuation was ordered Saturday along East Capitol. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage to structures, he said.
Authorities did not know the exact cause or origin of the fire, which has grown to 150 acres. As of Sunday morning, the Utah Fire Info website said the fire was human-caused and 0% contained.
In total, Utah has seen 585 fires burning more than 40,000 acres so far this wildfire season, and 421 of them have been human-caused, the website says.
