The East Canyon Fire burning in neighboring Morgan County grew to over 800 acres overnight and is currently 0% contained, according to Utah Wildfire.
The East Canyon Fire was started near East Canyon State Park in Morgan County midday Tuesday.
Utah Wildfire announced late Tuesday that an investigation has determined the fire was human caused. A piece of heavy equipment is suspected to have struck a rock and ignited nearby vegetation.
Summit County Fire Warden Bryce Boyer told KPCW North Summit Fire District crews were on scene Tuesday to provide logistical and operational support. He said local crews will be back in Summit County on Wednesday due to the ongoing red flag warning throughout the region, but are on standby to return to Morgan County if the situation changes.
“At this point, because of the red flag warning, talking with the incident commander on that, I will be in the county, available to deal with any new starts that we may get, but depending on what their fire behavior becomes today, I am still available to go over and assist them with that with whatever they may need,” Boyer said.
Wind had been pushing the blaze northeast towards Summit County on Tuesday, but Utah Wildfire announced Wednesday morning that fire activity was calm overnight.
Boyer said although the fire is relatively close to Summit County, the blaze still has about 18 miles of open land to go before it would threaten nearby Henefer.
“Most of that area of the county where it would be coming into is more open land, range land and so on, not really any infrastructure or anything that would be threatened until it got probably another 18 miles or so from where it’s actually burning, into the Henefer area,” he said.
Both directions of Highway 66 are still closed, along with hiking trails in the area. Evacuations along the highway are still in effect, but East Canyon State Park remains open and can be accessed via Highway 65 from Henefer and Salt Lake City.
A red flag warning is in effect throughout much of Utah until early Thursday.
