Park City firefighters responded to a small wildfire above Park City on Saturday morning.
The fire was in the Empire Pass area just above the Empire Canyon Lodge at Deer Valley. Firefighters say the blaze was a campfire that got out of hand.
Crews responded quickly on Saturday morning and were able to extinguish the flames before they grew too large.
Park City Fire Battalion Chief Darren Nelson told KPCW the blaze burned only about 100 square feet but could have easily been much worse if the fire wasn’t reported as quickly as it was.
He said with cooler temperatures this time of year making campfires more appealing, people still need to be careful.
“Campfires are always a risk,” Nelson said. “Utmost caution should always be exercised and once you get out in the wilderness. I understand that it’s something that people want to do to keep themselves warm, but you’ve got to have a plan in place and you’ve got to have a wide area cleared out around it if you get to that point that you decide you want to have a fire and you’ve got to have a way to put it out.”
He said with fires burning throughout the west at the moment, the Wasatch Back needs to stay aware that a major wildfire could happen here too.
“You know, obviously with all the major wildfire stories going on on the west coast in California and Oregon, everyone is very aware of potential here and it’s one unfortunate situation away of us having a major issue like that here also,” he added.
Fire crews spent about two hours at the site of the fire on Saturday and will be monitoring the area over the next few days for any potential flare ups.