Close to 600 people are fighting the fire, which was first reported Aug. 7. It’s about 7.5 miles southeast of the Bear River Ranger Station on Mirror Lake Highway.
Fire officials said over the weekend they’re measuring their progress in terms of “completion,” rather than containment.
Containment is the percentage of the wildfire’s perimeter that is secured. But when a fire is burning in dangerous terrain, containment isn’t necessarily the best way to share firefighters’ progress, according to Beulah Fire spokesperson Lisa Wilkolak.
“There’s no roads, it’s very difficult to access and it’s incredibly steep terrain,” she said. “Because of that, they changed their suppression strategy, and so this is when we moved to completion.”
She said containment is a good metric when it’s safe for firefighters to access the “live edges” of the blaze, but that’s not the case here.
Officials estimated Sunday the Beulah Fire is 28% complete, with firefighters tackling a range of projects to mitigate its spread.
“It includes everything from hand line – so that is where you’ll see firefighters out on the ground with their tools, getting the vegetation removed from the ground,” Wilkolak said. “We are using masticators and excavators and other heavy equipment to assist with vegetation removal around existing roads, and that creates an even larger fire barrier if it is needed.”
Six helicopters are also on the scene, mostly working to extinguish hot spots, support crews on the ground and check whether any lightning ignited during the weekend’s storms.
Wilkolak said crews are creating a “box” around the fire, making a perimeter where it will be safer for firefighters to engage if the flames continue to spread.
So far, crews have logged over 45,000 hours of work fighting the Beulah Fire.
Although recent rainfall offered firefighters some reprieve by slowing the fire’s growth, officials say the benefits will be short-lived. Hot, dry weather is in the forecast for the region from Monday through Wednesday, which could mean increased fire activity in the coming days.
Fire officials have said they predict Beulah could be a “long-duration fire.” Wilkolak said this blaze might require a season-ending event to finally be extinguished.
“Whether that’s an incredibly large rainstorm or snow – something where there’s enough moisture in the ground that actually stays,” she said.
Closures remain in place for portions of Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. Wilkolak asked locals to respect the closures and be patient as firefighters continue their work.
The Summit County Sheriff's Office encourages residents to sign up for emergency alerts in case of evacuation notices.
The cause of the Beulah Fire remains under investigation.
